Divine Blood
by Thrythlind
Summary: Seventeen years ago, three gods started a bet to see who could spawn the strongest hero. This bet destroyed Ranma Saotome's old life. Now the martial artist's children are being wrapped up in events beyond their control. FemRanma OMG
1. Prologue warning:Dark

"There can be no doubt of who's blood is the strongest of us," Zues proclaimed proudly.

"Indeed not," Poseidon agreed. "My children have long proven to be the greatest of the Greeks."

"Monsters," Zeus snapped back. "You most certainly have to be joking. Your blood has not had half the impact of my own, who gave rise to Persia and Rome."

"Rome comes from the loins of your son," Poseidon countered.

"Who is of my blood," Zeus added.

"Neither would have amounted to much without the wisdom of Minos and Theseus, or the valor of Achilles, if you wish to include further descendants."

"Impotent old men and reckless adventurers," Zeus said dismissively.

"You're one to speak of reckless youths," Poseiden snapped.

"There is a way to settle this argument," a soft voice added from the shadows.

The elder pair of gods turned toward their neice's face and silently questioned Hecate on her meaning.

"You can't really compare your respective bloodlines to date," Hecate said.

"And why is that?" Zeus asked.

"Because to date," she said. "You have not born children of the same woman."

"You propose that we share a lover with each other?" Zeus said, curious.

"We choose one mortal female," Hecate said. "And the three of us seduce her and each make her fertile with one child. This way the children are even born at the same time."

"And why should we include you?" Poseiden asked.

"How would you even sire a child on a mortal woman anyway," Zeus asked.

"The how is bounded in the secrets of my arts and magics," Hecate said. "And the why is obvious. There is no other way to test the blood strength of my father. You don't expect him to take part in this, do you? In addition, I can insure the cooperation of the chosen woman without the sort of fuss that would attract certain eyes."

"This is interesting," Zeus admitted.

"There must be no interference in the life of these children," Poseidon said. "We must test their strength, not the strength of our own plots."

"Agreed," Hecate said quickly, quietly holding her own counsel on the matter.

"And what shall be the measure to judge by?" Poseidon asked. "Or the prise in this venture."

"Boons," Zeus said quickly. "Now, who is to be the mother? That is the only question that remains."

"Ranma Saotome?" Poseidon scoffed. "That's a man. A boy actually."

"A powerful warrior," Hecate noted. "With a curse that leaves him open to our little wager."

"How often do we have a chance at such an exceptional female that isn't being watched by certain others," Zeus agreed approvingly.

"I wouldn't worry about watchers, uncle," Hecate said. "I can hide us from view. For a full day."

"We still haven't found a measure to judge by," Poseiden noted.

"Something will present itself," Zeus noted. "Something always does with such half-divine children."

Poseiden grudgingly nodded in response to that.

"Now, let the game begin," Zeus said eagerly.

*****

Ranma dazedly watched the black-haired woman step away from the bed. The woman didn't even bother to pick-up the nurse's uniform that had given her privacy with the beleagured redhead. With each step she simply faded further and further away into the darkness, as if the shadows were an endless road away from her.

As the third of her violators vanished and the room's shadows returned to normal and faded in the light of the coming dawn, Ranma knew she should have been angry or something, but she wasn't. Laying naked on the hospital bed, she could only pick out a vague feeling of physical pleasure and sensation. Later, though, she knew, whatever had been done to her would wear off and this day would become one she never wanted to think about ever again.

She knew none of the three that attacked her were normal people. No, they were had powers of some sort. If her unwilling enjoyment and lack of resistance weren't enough proof of that, there were other, more blatant proofs.

The first had come with the thunderstorm that opened the day, arriving with a burst of thunder and disappearing the next instant, taking Ranma with him. After that, Ranma couldn't remember anything specific, just a series of assaults of sheer, physical pleasure and muttered compliments from her attacker. The fuzziness in her mind had started there.

After that attacker had left, she'd gathered her clothes and wandered unfamiliar streets until she'd wandered out into a bay of some sort. Maybe she had some idea of cleansing herself, but more likely she had been drawn there as well, because that was when she'd been attacked the second time.

The enspelled martial artist had first seen a shark, but at some point, she was sure the attacker was human, or at least human-shaped. The first attacker had made a point of driving her to mind-numbing pleasure, but this second seemed to have no such concern or conceit. With her emotions as they were, however, even the pain of that attack had felt pleasurable.

When she'd finally been released by the shark and washed up on shore amidst the excited chatter of some language she couldn't immediately recognize. That's when they'd brought her to the hospital for treatment and recovery.

Ranma had known from her continued fuzzy mental state that it wasn't over yet, and, when night came and the beautiful nurse had come to "examine" her, she knew what was coming and still could do nothing to resist as this third demon assaulted her with unwanted sensation and invasion.

Now, her mental fuzziness was fading, but the precise memories were too and the day was rapidly dwindling into an uncertain nightmare on the edge of her mind. The day was mercifully vanishing from her mind.

A sing song voice announced the presence of another nurse as the door to Ranma's room opened. She couldn't understand the exact words, but the cheerful tone came through until the motherly old woman caught sight of the physically spent Ranma amidst the scattered clothing.

"Someone hurt me..." Ranma whispered, anger and sorrow finally working its way into her voice as the woman called security.


	2. Registration

"This looks like a safe neighborhood," the red-headed Japanese woman remarked as she looked out from the old warehouse.

There was a long way to go before she could make a decent home out of the refitted building, not to mention a training and equipment center. But the local crime was low so at least they wouldn't have to deal with anything other than the oddness that followed them.

And it was easy to fade out of and back to, leaving her still able to act as a mercenary without worrying much about her children.

Ranma nodded again as she looked out over the neighborhood of Jindai High School.

***********

Ranma looked down the hilly path toward Jindai high school with a little trepidition. She wasn't certain about this recent move. Her children hadn't had the most normal of educations, and they'd probably have trouble adjusting to norm...mundane society. She certainly remembered her own problems in that regard.

Ranma had trained them as she could, even in the sealed arts. In addition she'd traded her services as a warrior for training and introduction in any thing she thought would give them an edge when "they" came back.

Despite the obscured memories of the day she'd ceased to be a man, a further cruel joke by whatever had attacked her, Ranma wasn't to be lulled into believing it was gone. They'd be back, if they'd ever really left, and she wanted her children ready for whatever they would bring.

But she also wanted them to have an easier time with the "real" world than she had. Which was why she tried to enroll them in schools whenever possible, and why she picked schools like Jindai with very little history of weirdness. Enough weirdness would follow her and her children as it was.

She'd originally planned on Nekomi, but there was something there that seemed bitterly familiar. She'd investigate herself later, but for now, it was better to leave her children away from it.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to her, a certain Sosuke Sagara was being flown in for his first day of classes.

***********

"Do you have the necessary documents Satomi-san?" the secretary asked as teachers and staff moved about from office to room and room to office.

The secretary glanced curiously past the woman to her children. Each had a unique appearance that made them stand out more than a little.

The boy out of the three already stood six foot tall, his blonde hair would have been thick and curly if he didn't keep it cropped short. The secretary couldn't help but whistle slightly in appreciation at the young man's well-defined muscles and easy grace. The charming, boyish smile on his face added to the overall attractiveness.

(Deimosu(Deimos) Satomi  
Martial Skill: Too good for his own good - Anything Goes preferred  
Magic Skill: ...could be better... - Hermetic Magic preferred)

Already the secretary was expecting to hear a great deal of problems dealing with this boy and the various girls around the school.

Of the two sisters, one could hardly sit still. Her long, braided green hair was constantly jinking one way or another as she looked about like a creature in a cage, trying not to tap her feet. She loudly sighed and commented about wanting to get on with classes under her breath every couple of seconds.

(Naiki(Nike) Satomi  
Martial Skill: Ryouga-esque - Loud Thief style preferred  
Magic Skill: fluctuates with mood - Elemental Magic preferred)

The last sister just outright set the secretary on edge. She was polite and attractive, like the others, but something about the black-haired girl just felt creepy. Her skin was so pale that she was almost an albino, and the secretary knew there were bright red-eyes under those sunglasses. So, even though it made her feel guilty to wince at the genuine friendliness the girl quietly radiated, she still couldn't help it.

(Eija(Asia) Satomi  
Martial Skill: ...Ranma refused commentary... - Quiet Theif style preferred  
Magic Skill: Exceptional - Faith-based magic preferred)

The gruff sound of a clearing throat took the secretary's attention back to the children's mother, who was apparently displeased by the obvious inspection of her offspring.

"I have the documents here," Ranma noted coldly.

"Uh...yes ma'am..." the secretary said, feeling somehow that if any of the four were people not to upset, the mother was the one.

**************

"Where'd my angel go?" Kurtz Webber moaned as Kaname Chidori went off on her tirade about boring rich kids.

Cramped in his AS cockpit, the rather downward directed mercenary was too busy sighing over the loss of his perfect image of Kaname to notice the ballastic path his computers were tracing away from the school. A solid thunk radiating downward through the vehicle was his first clue that something had been on a direct path to land on him.

"What the heck was that?" Kurtz snapped, sitting up and scanning the area outside the cockpit.

Similarly, Ranma landed lightly on a roof-top across the street, looking back toward the clump of trees she had just jumped off of. A scowl crawled over her face as she tried to puzzle out why the tree branch she had just bounced off of sounded metallic.

Originally, she had been aiming for the street and hadn't even seen a branch. The surprising contact with a hard surface caught her unprepared and she'd landed with an embarrassingly solid impact and hadn't managed to get more than a short hop out of it.

Looking back, however, all she could see were trees and, further onward the school she'd just left her children at. There was nothing that she could see there, and no spirits she could feel in the area.

Reluctantly and very slowly she turned away from the empty street and continued back to the warehouse she'd purchased. There was still some work to be done to make it livable, and secure.

Meanwhile Kurtz glanced down to the view screen for his external camera and blinked. Quickly, his eyes lifted from the screen, to the actual building outside of the cockpit, but there was no sign of the woman he thought he'd glimpsed in the camera.

By the time he looked down, she'd already leaped away.

After a moment, he shook his head clear of the whole thing and looked for a source of caffeine.

****

Meanwhile, Kagurazaka-Sensei was staring at the unusual selection of books in front of her. She couldn't even recognize some of the languages on some of them.

The owner of the books, which looked a lot like some sort of spellbook or fantasy game, was currently exchanging words with some other students, her brother and sister if the teacher remembered correctly. What exactly they were saying, she couldn't understand, but others passing through did.

None of them were speaking Japanese at the moment.

"I told you not to bring the books," Naiki snapped irritably,

"But we might need -" Eija started.

"Nothing's going to happen here," Deimosu assured her brightly. "This is the modern world, not another backwater with a bunch of mumbo-jumbo."

Sousuke listened to the Greek conversation and noted it down in his memory, making some basic deductions.

The three other new students were foreign-educated and raised, like him. Judging by several similarities, he assumed them to be siblings. They appeared to have had past difficulties, probably with some sort of cult or another, based on their choice of reading material. It was also apparent that they believed in such superstitions, but the boy did not apparently have much respect for it.

If their difficulties followed, then his objective might be complicated, but it did not appear that they ahd anything directly to do with his mission. He shrugged and started to make an attempt to use this as a distraction to get past the teachers inspecting backpacks.

"Hey!" a voice cried out as Kagurazaka-sensei hurriedly rushed past the three Satomi's to intercept him. "Young man! These kind of toys are not acceptable in any way shape or form."

Sousuke blinked in moderate surprise, trying to figure out just how this civilian had managed to detect his weapons so easily, and then to mistake them for toys.

"Ma'am, I assure you," he said seriously. "That is no toy, and you really shouldn't be handling it that way."

All eyes were on him as he continued to argue with the teacher about the nature of the item in her hand. It was also confusing that he had not yet been taken into a more severe form of custody. Given the surprising skill of this security staff in detecting weapons, he would have thought there'd be much more severe reprecussions for being caught.

"Great, another military maniac," Kaname said, then her eyes wandered to the other three new students as a pentagram marked book was slipped back into a backpack. "And a creepy, goth kid. Just what we need."

"Hey," Kyouko said cheerfully. "At least one of them is cute."

****************

"Class," the teacher said cheerfully, "we have two new students today."

Kaname looked up toward the two mentioned students and inwardly groaned, recognizing them from earlier in the day.

Standing up front was the creepy goth girl and the military nut from earlier.

"Would you please introduce yourselves, students?" Kagurazaka-sensei suggested strongly to the two new students.

Sousuke nodded crisply as, standing at attention, he introduced himself to the class.

"I'm Sergeant Sagara Sousuke," he declared proudly, and things went down from there.

Kaname groaned as the self-proclaimed sergeant went on a long description of his interest in reading lots and lots of military stuff. She rolled her eyes and shook her head at the performance. There was no way the guy could get any weirder.

Sousuke, meanwhile ended his introduction wondering just how reliable his comrade's advice had been. He stepped back away from the class, clearing the way for the next new student to introduce herself.

Eija smiled brightly as she stepped forward, eyes obscured behind the dark lenses of her sunglasses.

"Excuse me, Satomi-san," Kagurazaka-sensei insisted as the girl started to open her mouth. "Could you first remove your sunglasses?"

"Oh no," Eija said, looking toward the teacher. "I have to wear these during the day. My eyes don't handle daytime very well."

"I see," the teacher said, mentally making a note to check with the nurse on that. "Well, please continue."

Kaname arched an eyebrow as the girl behind the sunglasses, expensive looking things that included sides along the frames that made them almost look like stylish goggles. Except for the black hair, Kaname would have thought the girl was an albino what with all the pale skin and the bad eyes.

Sousuke, meanwhile, was politely filing the information away while observing Chidori's fidgety reactions to the introductions.

"My name is Satomi Eija," the dark-haired girl said politely, bowing cheerfully and smiling brightly.

As she flashed the perfectly white teeth, the audience felt a chill work up their spines that was made worse by the fact that she honestly seemed to be friendly.

"Hello, little miss Dracula," Kaname muttered under her breath.

"I think she's cute," Kyuoko said brightly, apparently the only one that seemed unaffected by the creep factor radiating out of Eija.

"I've also travelled to many places," she said. "I was born in Greece with my brother and sister, but my mother started taking jobs in various places, so we had to travel a lot with her."

"So what hobbies do you have?" one boy asked, with a slightly snide tone of voice. "Drinking blood and turning into bats?"

"Tanaka-san!" Kagurazaka snapped. "Behave yourself."

Eija, however, ignored or failed to notice the commentary and continued on anyway.

"I like herbology and painting, actually," Eija said. "I don't know much about blood rites and it isn't safe to dabble."

The teacher, the students and even Sousuke took a long moment to stare at her nervously.

"Did I say something wrong?" she asked, confused.

*****************

Eija may have had a rather interesting introduction, but her siblings weren't far behind the scale.

********

"I am Satomi Naiki," the green-haired girl said, somewhat rolling her eyes. "I like swimming and rock climbing and heavy metal music. Can I sit down and get on with ignoring you now?"

The other students widened there eyes at this remark and the teacher glared at the young woman.

********

"I am a very astute student of the human body," Deimosu was saying amiably. "My mother, you see, insists that I always improve upon my already masterful level of such anatomical knowledge so that I can produce the most amazing results from the most subtle of..."

"Excuse me, Satomi-san," the teacher said irritably. "But we need to get on with class."

"Uh, right," Deimosu said as he started to walk to his seat.

Some of the students were imagining that he was on his way to being a doctor, and others were imagining impressive skill in the bedroom.

This was mostly split down gender lines.

Strangely enough, so were the longing gazes and angry glares.

*****************

Ranma paused her work as the butterfly flittered past her eyes and landed upon the windowsill in front of her. Frowning, she waited a moment before watching it fold into a piece of inert parchment.

As useful as it was, especially in her line of work, magic always somewhat disturbed her. Her curse and much of what followed from that definitely had a hand in her opinions.

She never used magic directly, sticking to tools and items, and she only used those when she had to. Most of the time, her martial skills were plenty for the jobs. Still, there were times that specific items were necessary.

As it stood, there was only one source of magic that did not make her flinch at least a little: her children.

Grumbling, she set down her building supplies and gingerly picked up the magical message.

She especially hated the way hire requests showed up at her door like this.

Opening the message she skimmed over it somewhat hesitantly before reaching the location.

"Ah, crap," she muttered, quickly moving to a large, iron-bound wood chest and throwing it open.

**********

Meanwhile, a silent figure looked over the scenes going on below in the schoolyard, watching everything carefully. A semi-psychotic grin covered his face as he noted his objective out on the field below enjoying her lunch.

**********

"And what did Sousuke do this time?" Kyouko asked with a light step as she pursued what was quickly becoming her favorite topic: the Kaname and Sousuke soap opera.

Kaname was somewhat tight-lipped this morning, not wanting to say that the military maniac had saved her life from a speeding truck. If she said it, Kyouko would just start gushing about how he obviously was attracted to her and stuff like that. Then Kaname would shoot back something about how gross that was and start pointing out reasons why and all that would do would be to convince Kyouko that Kaname was attracted to Sousuke.

As if.

"Hey," Kyouko said. "What's that over there?"

Kaname looked in the direction Kyouko was pointing, thanking the heavens above for sending the distraction (unaware of the irony of that thought), and saw three large high school boys in karate gis standing around Naiki Satomi.

Eija was to the green-haired girl's side quietly trying to calm her sister down, but not having much luck. As she started to get close enough to hear what was going on, Kaname didn't much blame Naiki for her anger. Their brother was standing off to the side, arms crossed over his chest and a disapproving look on his face.

"You are going to apologize to my sister and I," Naiki said harshly. "Then you are going let us get back to practicing our katas."

"Such women as yourselves should not be polluting the fine art of karate in such a way," one of the boys said arrogantly. "Playing at practice without even a proper dojo. You should join us, the Amateur Karate Club, and then you could watch real men practice the art as it should be practiced."

"I mastered karate by kindergarten," Naiki responded, not alltogether accurately. "Just try something and we'll see who the weakling is."

"Sister, please," Eija said, before turning toward the men. "Please excuse my sister, she is prideful and I'm sure she would not to participate in such a one-sided match."

"Hey, if they want to commit suicide," Naiki said angrily.

"Sister!" Eija snapped in disappointment. "Brother, please, don't just stand there."

"Don't look at me," Deimosu said shrugging irritably. "Any girl but Naiki I would already be teaching these thugs a lesson."

Eija sighed helplessly and turned to her sister to argue farther, this time speaking animatedly in Greek, Naiki answering back just as vehemently and with the occasional comment from Deimosu.

"Hey," the central member of the karate club said. "Don't just ignore us. You want to play martial artist, then you have to accept the challenges."

All three Satomi kids stopped arguing then and turned to look at the man with a serious expression on their face.

"Uh oh," Kyouko said. "Looks like something happened."

"Eija Satomi was trying to remind her sister that they were not supposed to be fighting at school if they could help it," Sousuke said, coming up behind Kaname and Kyouko silently. Both girls jumped slightly at his sudden appearance. "However, now that the Karate club has made the challenge official, even she seems to be dropping her argument."

"You mean Naiki is actually going to fight that big monster," Kaname asked, looking from the five foot six girl to the bulky, over-muscled guy that could barely be still considered adult.

Before Sousuke could answer, Eija sighed and stepped out of the way of her sister, who now grinned with shark-like display of white teeth.

"What are your terms?" Naiki asked in sinister tone.

"If you lose," the leader of the more or less identical trio said. "Then you must become our girlfriends and stop pretending to practice the martial arts." His tone certainly implied that he expected to win hands down.

"When I win," Naiki responded, still smiling. "Not only do you leave us alone, but you admit that women can be just as good martial artists as men."

"We'll need a referee," the karate clubber said eagerly. Looking around, he scanned the crowd and snapped out a finger to point at Kaname. "You, the student council vice president! You'll be our referee."

"Me?" Kaname said in shock. "What do I know about being a referee for a martial arts competition."

"It's easy," Deimosu said. "When Naiki has knocked out all three of them, you declare her the winenr."

"What did you say?" half the field of gathered students asked, including the karate club.

Eija blinked in moderate confusion as she looked over her sister's soon to be opponents.

"You don't mean you want to fight her one on one," she asked somewhat quietly.

"Well, of course," the karate club said, confused. "We want to give her some chance."

"Are you sure about this?" Kaname asked. "What if one of the teachers or someone comes around?"

"Nevermind, Miss Chidori," a cultured voice said from behind an embroidered fan. "The challenge has been made and it must be resolved, and the teachers will not move to impose upon our autonomy."

"Uh, right," Kaname said, wondering again at the president's rather blase response to everything that should have seen as being on outward side of insanity.

"I'm ready whenever they are," Naiki said.

"This little girl can't be thinking to take all three of us at the same time," the Karate club said.

"Are you backing out on the challenge then?" Eija asked hopefully.

"Never," another member said. "No member of the Amateur Karate Club would ever so dishonor the honor of our group."

"Then come on," Naiki said waving for the karate club to attack.

"We're waiting for Vice President Chidori to start the match," the third member said.

"Well, um..." Kaname said hesitantly. "Is everybody ready?"

"Hai!" the karate club members declared.

"Oh yeah," Naiki said confidentally.

"Oh kay," Kaname said, shrugging. "Begin!"

At the sound of the word, Naiki launched herself forward, grinning as widely as a shark.

"Now you'll see why I'm named after the goddess of victory," she shouted loudly as she charged into the karate club, her hand flashing out to make her first strike. "Dokuja Tanketsu Shou!"

Her hand snaked past the first fighter's guard to strike him, slightly off target, in the abdomen. Instantly, the huge fighter was doubled over in surprised agony as Naiki, ignoring her accuracy problem on that strike, whirled about in a flashing roundhouse strike that her next target barely ducked under.

The third fighter, no longer hesitating to attack launched forward at the airborne and therefore, to his mind, vulnerable Naiki. Unleashing his foot in an efficient and power-building arc, he smirked as he imagined this girl and her sister serving him and his compatriots everything they requested.

To his surprise, Naiki threw herself upward, anchoring against her own forward momentum. The heavy roundhouse didn't hit solidly, but it still hit.

Grunting as the impact threw her off course, Naiki brought herself to the ground in as graceful a manner as she could before launching back into the fight.

The first fighter was still recovering, and she had to press her advantage now, before they geared up.

One of the two still active karate club members came into her moving low with a feinted snap kick that provoked Naiki into jumping up off the ground and into the path of the reverse backfist.

Eija winced as her sister was slammed in the jaw and forced down into the dirt. Instantly, Naiki was rolling back to her feet, but she was getting angry.

"Oh no," Eija said. "They're better than she thought they'd be."

"She's getting reckless again," Deimosu agreed, sighing.

Eija gave him a look that spoke volumes about what she thought about the irony of him making that comment.

A near-perfect sidekick from Naiki projected the third karate club member more than half the courtyard away, and she followed it up with a flipping dodge leading into a sweep that was geared to take the feet out from under her opponent, but, in her anger, she telegraphed her intent and the karata-ka was out of the way well before she landed.

Then her first opponent was moving into the fight, reaching out to grab Naiki's arms in an attempt to grapple with and nail down the fighting girl's motion.

Naiki growled, and started to pull out of the hold, but immediately noticed that she was going to be too slow to avoid whatever attacks the other two would be coming in with.

"I can't lose!" she thought to herself. "Then Eija and I would be at their command."

Her eyes flashed watery blue as she roared.

"She's not..." Eija said, sighing.

"She is..." Deimosu said nervously. "Hope Mom's nowhere nearby."

Kaname had been watching in outright shock as the girl had been manhandling the three huge fighters, not easily, but certainly showing that she had more skill and power than any one of them. Now, however, as the karate-ka's converged on the momentarily restrained Satomi, something clouded her vision...

~hybrid biological system, intense psychokinetic potential.~

...then she shook her head and it was gone.

"What did you sa..." Kyouko started to ask when it happened.

A quick flash of liquid blue energy erupted outward from Naiki, throwing back all three of the karate-kas and half-blinding all the witnesses.

Immediately in the aftermath, Naiki was standing in the middle of a small circle of charred ground and the three karate-club members were laid out around her.

****

"What was that?" Gauron wondered curiously as he watched the result of the fight.

****

"Ummm," Kagome said, uncertain what to do at this point.

"I believe now is the point that you should call the match," Sousuke said politely.

"Right," Kagome said, getting a bit nervous again as she remembered that the military maniac was right there. "Winner, Naiki."

"She...cheated," one of the karate-kas moaned before passing at.

"Like hell I did," Naiki said, taking a moment to spit some blood out of her mouth. "Now, let's get to class."

Gauron waited quietly and patiently as the students filtered inside and then moved stealthily down to the courtyard, aware of the invisible AS that was somewhere nearby. Acting as quickly as he could, he bent down to take a sample of the blood he'd seen the green-haired girl spit out.

"Could be interesting," Gauron said, leaving the area as quickly as could do so without attracting attention. "But can't get distracted from the Whispered."

**************

Ranma looked down the hill towards the school and just barely caught the flash of light that told her that one of her children had gotten careless. A hint of worry crossed her face and she started to turn back down the path, but no, it was only one of them. If something very bad had happened she'd have felt a lot more power from all three of her children.

No, this was just a behavior breach. Naiki would be getting a lecture later, but that was about it.

Which left her to her job at hand. Looking back up the hill, she analyzed the chi she was feeling.

This hill was not the most unusual of places she had been, but it wasn't ordinary either. Under the grass a path cut a rivelet in the rise of the hill through which yin travelled in a swift current that was shielded by a crust of yang. Somewhere up in this little wooded hill, someone had built a reservoir of darkness that looked up toward the sun.

Ranma was mildly impressed. Unfortunately, it sounded like someone or something was misusing it.

The morning's message still stuck in Ranma's mind. That a new job would come only days after moving to this new place, and that the hunt was to take place in that same neighborhood. It raised Ranma's hackles even if the situation seemed straightforward.

Two nights ago someone had made off with an American exchange student. The police found witness reports that did not seem to make sense, at least not to normal investigation reports. Some of the weirdness had started to leak to the press, otherwise Ranma might never have been called in.

The information Ranma had said that witnesses had seen the girl taken away East by a "giant insect-man." Of course the police had searched, but Ranma wasn't surprised that they hadn't found this overgrown path. She herself had barely found it with chi-senses, the entire hill seemed to be designed to not be noticed, in fact.

As for the giant-insect man, like the police, Ranma didn't think there was a demon involved here. More likely, it was just an ugly and very skinny guy in some sort of tattered overcoat who had stumbled on this old refuge. There were a lot of people like that out there, with the instinct to draw them to such places without knowing why they were drawn.

If a kid's life wasn't at stake, she'd have never accepted the assignment. The police would have found this eventually, probably with only a little more trouble, and Ranma didn't like getting involved in police matters if she could avoid it.

She took a sniff of the air and kept her eyes open as she climbed and moved deeper into the flow of yin chi. She shivered a bit against the instinct to feel a calming sensation as she hit the deeper chi.

It was a reminder. Something that happened anytime she came to a place of heavy and pure chi, yang or yin.

A reminder that she wasn't unmagical anymore herself. Years of chi-mastery, the neko-ken, Jusenkyo and her....unwilling liasions with a trio of spirits had had in many ways forced her to become a creature of magic herself. It had been getting worse since only a little after her children were born. She had to deal with it, but she didn't have to like it.

Then she found what she was looking for.

A veritable pool of dark chi in a little bowl surrounded by foreign-planted grey oaks and looking up into the sky. In the center of the little bowl was a hole in the ground down into which a ladder descended.

Ranma didn't wait before diving down into that hole and instantly a sickening sensation drifted through the, until then pure chi. She covered her mouth and shook her head clear, taking in the darkness as she considred what she faced.  
Someone had desecrated this holy site with blood in order to shield it against exorcists.

Most exorcists, that is.

Exorcists that dealt mainly in yang probably wouldn't have the experience to filter out the corrupted yin from blinding their senses and hampering their powers. Fortunately, the red-head wasn't just an exorcist. She was a chi-master, both in yin and yang, and she wasn't going to be stopped just by a little booby trap like this.

As she regained her balance, she took in the trap and sighed in relief.

It was old, very old, left over from some past evil and Ranma was probably still looking at a common sicko with sharp instincts.

She moved forward, wrapping herself in the umisenken and searching for any more signs of other chi-traps.

The long underground cooridor pushed downward further into the hill, finally coming out in large underground room that shocked Ranma's senses again.

He stood in an ancient lava-chamber, among walls that were virtually glowing with yang while yin seethed in center until it was forced back through the tunnel and up into the hill.

In her shock at the triple blind, Ranma dropped the umisenken and almost missed the incoming motion.

At the last moment she dodged aside and the knife slashed through where her neck had been just a moment before.

"What demon comes to this holy place?" her attacker demanded.

As Ranma had expected, the man was long and spindly, almost anorexic, with deep, sunken eyes and hollow cheeks. His jaw standing out against his skin could certainly look almost insectile in the wrong light. And those long strands of standing hair looked something like antennae.

"Shut up," Ranma said slashing forward with a simple strike into the man's face.

The man tried to dodge aside, but Ranma was more than ready for it and casually swiped across with his fist to complete the strike anyway and send the predicted sicko sprawling to the floor insensate.

That left just finding the girl.

The first alcove held a girl, indeed, but she had been dead for at least a month. She hung from the wall in chains that held her tight against the wall. A host of little cuts were slashed into her body through the tatters of her clothing and her cloudy, half-rotted eyes stared outward.

Ranma wasn't surprised that the girl's body was still heavy with chi, or the two tails that hung limply from her lower back. A sicko with chi instincts wouldn't just hunt average people, after all. Those instincts would draw him to weirdos, like her and her kids. Another reason she had taken this job so quickly.

"We got him for you kid," Ranma whispered, closing the girl's eyes and moving to the next alcove and the next until she found the girl she was looking for.

Katrina Strnad, the missing girl was weak and barely conscious, mouth open and breathing tiredly. Ranma immediately noted what had drawn the sicko to this one: she was a vampyr, girl probably didn't know it even.

"Don't worry," Ranma said softly, reaching up to pull the chains out of the wall and moving to carry the girl.

Miss Strnad slumped heavily over Ranma's shoulder and the red-haired girl made for the exit.

"You will not take that demon from this place!" a voice demanded angrily as the thin man charged forward at the woman freeing his prisoner.

Said-prisoner woke up and flinched fearfully at the sound of that voice, and then it was cut off with a bone-crunching thud.

"You should have stayed down, freak," Ranma said as the body of the serial killer crumpled to the ground, neck snapping at an unnatural angle from the impact of Ranma's foot.

From there it was simple to leave the descrated site and soon she was depositing the little girl at a Catholic church she knew of that was friendly and knowledgable towards the living version of their traditional foe.

"Might want to mention the place to someone who can purify it too," Ranma muttered, mostly satisfied that the job was done.

Still, it was rare that things went so exactly as she expected them to, and that was bothering her.

************

As Sousuke walked into the school, he considered the exchange he had just seen with what he had gotten on the Satomi's background check.

On the front, there wasn't too much to raise eyes. The mother's stated profession was "mystical consultant," which Sousuke took to mean some sort of fortune teller or other such thing. She'd moved around the world a lot similar to Sousuke himself, though she seemed to be living in places that weren't exactly in the middle of the wars, but on the edges.

Her childhood, education and career seemed very upfront. Just as upfront as Sousuke's own background. In fact, he saw some of the same names as references that he himself had, meaning that the Satomi's and mithril shared a forger of records somewhere and maybe some financial backings.

Thinking back, Sousuke thought he vaguely remembered hearing of a freelancer named Satomi. Took specialized jobs of some kind. That made him some what nervous. If she was a freelancer, then she could be working with their enemies.

He'd have to keep a tighter watch on the Satomis from now on.

As he said that he kneeled down to open his shoe locker and noticed the hair he had placed there was broken.

****

"I don't know what you're talking about, Kyouko," Kaname said irritably.

"You got all spooky and said something like 'hybrid gas pumps are psychotic' or something like that," Kyouko insisted.

"What?" Kaname demanded, confused. "That doesn't make any...."

And that's when the side of the building ahead of them exploded outward in a rain of debris.

Students screamed and ran for cover as a select few just stared in outright shock.

"Sa...sa...sa..SAGARA!!!!" Kaname roared outloud.

Kneeling behind the blast shield, Sousuke watched the smoke billow up and considered what may or may not have been placed inside his footlocker. His analysis was interrupted by the impact of Kaname's harisen over the side of his head.

"What the hell are you doing you maniac?" she demanded bitterly.

"Someone had tampered with my shoe locker," Sousuke said calmly.

"Well," Kaname said. "Obviously that explains everything."

"I'm glad you understand, Miss Chidori," Sousuke continued, moving to stand up.

Then he was flattened by the harisen again.

"It doesn't explain anything!" Kaname snapped angrily.

Sousuke looked up from his position on the ground more than a little confused at the situation. He kept quiet a moment, blinking, as he tried to figure out how to best explain what to him was a given fact.

"It was possibly a bomb or other such trap," Sousuke said. "Detonation was the only option."

"And what if it was gas?" Kaname asked in a tone that would have read to a normal person as "you expect me to believe that?"

"I made sure to use an explosive that would burn hot enough to eliminate any biological or chemical waepons," Sousuke assured her.

"Wait a minute," Kaname said, taking her turn to be confused. "You thought I was serious?!!"

"AAHHH!" Kyouko shrieked. "What's that?"

Whatever Sousuke's response would have been was interrupted as a blackened wraith radiating fear and woe stumbled out of the area of the explosion and moved in a zig zag towards Kaname and the others mouth open-wide to reveal sharp, pearly white teeth...

"Shoes go boom," the shape said dizzily.

...and collapsed in front of them.

"Oh crap," Kaname said. "I think that's Eija."

"Hmm," Sousuke said. "I thought for sure I checked for any civilians before I detonated that."

"Hey!" a voice called out from behind them. Turning back, they saw Deimosu heading their direction looking concerned.

Immediately Kaname scooped up Eija and hid the small girl in a little crevice behind some of the debris.

"What's going on over here?" Deimosu demanded urgently.

"There has been a serious acci..." Sousuke started urgently.

"The military maniac here just blew up the lockers because he thought someone planted a bomb in it," Kaname said, cutting off Sousuke. "We got this handled."

"But..." Sousuke started.

"Don't try to deny it, you idiot," Kaname said somewhat crazily.

"But..." Sousuke tried to say again.

"We'll just have to clean this up," Kaname said.

"Kaname, what about..." Kyouko started to say, sort of pointing.

"We'll take care of it, Kyouko," Kaname assured her.

Deimosu looked from Sousuke to Kyouko, both looking worried and confused, and back to Kaname, who seemed more than a little on edge, and shrugged.

"Whatever," he said. "At least I'm not involved in this." Putting his hands up behind his head, he started to walk off.

"Okay," Kaname said, grabbing up the unconscious Satomi. "To the nurse's office."

"Miss Chidori," Sousuke started to inquire as they started moving for the nurse's office. "Why did we not tell Satomi about his sister?"

"Yeah, Kaname," Kyouko said. "What if she's really hurt?"

"Why did the shoes go boom?" Eija asked again, muttering from on Kyouko's back.

"Because then he would have killed us," Kaname said. "Have you seen what that family can do?"

"I am more than capable of taking care of my...urk," Sagara found his forward motion cut off as Kaname pulled him back around the corner they had just been about to turn.

Peeking around the corner, they stared at Naiki Satomi sniffing the air and turning about in confusion. She started to look back at them, and the three ducked around the corner. She looked away and thye looked back around the corner.

Carefully, at Kaname's insistence, the three carrying a fourth crept forward cautiously, watching Naiki all the way. The green-haired girl sniffed the air again and whipped her head about, just missing it as the other three teenagers past her around the other direction with nary a sound.

Scratching her head, Naiki sniffed again and, twisting about, she barely missed the three people carrying her sister disappearing around another corner.

"Eija forgot her sunscreen again," Naiki said. "Wonder how bad the sunburn is this time?"

"I'm really not understanding the point behind this, Miss Chidori," Sousuke said, nevertheless moving as quietly as he could. "The Satomis would certainly not react badly to us trying to help their sister."

He was somewhat embarrassed that this untrained civilian had apparently been paying more attention to their route than he was, but, then again she seemed to be more worried about encounters with other students than he was.

"Whew," Kaname said as they came to a stop in front of the nurse's station. "Made it. Now, listen, Sousuke. I'm not sure what you saw this morning, but I saw a near-monster take apart three people."

"She was very skilled," Sousuke admitted. "But she could have ended that much sooner and without whatever weapon she used at the end if she had been less reckless."

"Huh? Weapon?" Kyouko asked confused. "Sorry, I couldn't see anything, I was too busy listening to Kaname mutter about hybrid theory."

"I've been telling you all day," Kaname said. "I never said anything like that, look, school's almost out, let's just get Eija to the nurse's office patched up and out of here before her brother or sister show up."

"Or mother."

"Or mother," Kaname agreed.

All three teenagers froze and turned around to see the red-headed thirty-something standing behind them.

***********

Ranma shook her head as she looked over her daughter, the youngest of her children by several minutes. The girl had a real problem with handling impacts. That had forced Ranma to take her slowly through the various body-hardening techniques, making the difference between her and her siblings that much more extreme.

Given a choice, Ranma wouldn't even be forcing martial instruction on the scholarly girl, but their life didn't allow for much leeway. Demons, sorcerers and monsters of all stripes were drawn to her children. Some were simply curious, others sought to make use of or destroy them.

"Are you going to explain what happened?" Ranma asked the three teens standing before her with an arched eyebrow.

"Boom! Weee!" Eija said dizzily, drawing sweat from everybody present.

"Ma'am!" Sousuke said stepping forward a crisp manner that proudly screamed soldier to Ranma. "If I may explain."

She took a moment to take the boy's measure and liked what she saw. He held himself like a warrior, and she could see by his face that he'd seen battle. Raw, unchecked battle the likes of which she usually tried to ghost past. There was no hint of chi mastery in his aura, but there was a good potential.

He'd seen a lot and done a lot, but he was no burn out. His stance spoke of military discipline, something Ranma had precious little of, but had learned to respect. This was an active soldier.

Ranma was very curious about just why such a person was here, of all places.

"Go ahead," Ranma said, moving to take Eija from Kyouko and lay her gently on the ground so she could check her daughter over as he talked.

"What, but..." the blue-haired girl started to demand.

"Excuse me," Ranma said sharply, turning to look at Kaname. "But the kid said he'd give me an answer already, so wait your turn."

Ranma felt the edge of a headache as she looked at the girl. There was something about her that seemed to distort her chi field in little spatters of static throughout her aura.

She'd felt this before, usually when she was encountering something new and her senses hadn't figured out how to handle it just yet. Looking back at the soldier, she arched an eyebrow and nodded in what she considered a subtle display of realization.

Ranma's legendary poker face had never really left her, though, and several sets of thoughts were going through the heads of the teenagers.

"What the hell is she smiling at him like that for," Kaname wondered. "Oh hell, is she some sort of cradle robbing old woman?"

"She's made me," Sousuke said. "And Kaname? How could she be so quick?"

"Wow, Kaname and Sousuke are so obvious even perfect strangers can figure it out," Kyouko said.

"She's got a good hand, fold," Eija mumbled.

Ranma turned attention back to her daughter and was pleased to note that there seemed to be no major injuries, just the concussion which she could deal with easily enough, starting with some light shiatsu.

"I was recovering my shoes from the foot-locker when I noticed that someone had tampered with my locker," Sousuke explained. "As I could not be certain of what had been placed in my locker..."

"Oh hell, you blew it up, didna ya?" Ranma asked as she continued to massage Eija's temple.

"Affirmative, Ma'am," Sousuke said.

"Oww, my head..." Eija muttered.

"Shhh," Ranma said. "Ya gotta a concussion, Eija-chan, just lay down and don' try nothing and I'll take care of it."

"I could..." Eija started to say.

"The last time ya tried to cast any spell like this," Ranma interrupted in Greek. "You puked your guts out and ended up stuck in bed for two days. Healer, let someone else heal ya." The last was said with a bit of good humor and ended with a friendly thump on the injured girl's arm.

"Hai, Mother," Eija said in frustration, rubbing at her arm.

"That should do it, now just sit there," Ranma said. "We'll be going home in a moment. Now, you wanted to say something?"

Ranma turned from her crouch to look up at Kaname expectantly, trying not to blink at the continuing headache that looking at her caused.

"Well...ummm..." Kaname said, trying to find a way to dig out of the hole Sousuke just put them in.

"Now, why were ya not talking to my other kids?" Ranma asked again, arching an eyebrow.

"Well...they're ummm," Kaname said nervously. "They probably would have killed us..." she didn't sound half so certain as she had a moment ago.

"Deimosu and Naiki?" Ranma asked with a laugh, then seemed to think again. "Well, maybe Naiki. What about you, pigtails?"

"Oh, I was just helping my friend," Kyouko said.

"Anyway, don't let me hear about this again, or whoever's responsible for each of ya is gonna hear about it."

She reached down to help up her daughter, frowned meaningfully at each of them before walking away.

"Bai bai," Eija said tiredly, waving from on Ranma's back.

"Spells?" Sousuke said in curiosity.

****

"This DNA strand is amazing," the tech said to Gauron. "It's holds layer upon layer of coding, like one of the geometrics that seems to hold more space than it takes up. Every time we think we've hit the end of it, there's more coding."

"Is it something we can use?" Gauron asked. "Like the Whispered."

"Maybe with a living example," the tech said. "But this isn't a repository of knowledge like the Whispered, this is all stuff that is built into the organism."

"How about brainwashing?" the pyschotic asked.

"How old are we talking about?" the tech asked. "I wouldn't want to play games with the person behind this past a few years old."

"So we'd need infants is what your saying," Gauron concluded. "That could be fun."


	3. Social Society

"Hey, Deimosu," Naiki called out waving her hand. "What's up?"

"Have you seen Eija anywhere?" Deimosu asked in response.

"I smelled her in halls," his sharkish sister said, pointing back over her shoulder. "Think she was heading to the nurse's office. Smelled like a sunburn."

"Oh good, I was worried," the brother said, breathing a sigh of relief. "There was some sort of accident in the shoe lockers where she was supposed to be. I'll head ba...uh oh."

Deimosu had been turning about to head back into the school when he saw who was coming out of it.

"What?" Naiki asked, turning about...to the sight of her mother walking up towards them carrying their sister on her back.

"Umm, Mom, what are you doing here?" Deimosu asked. "What happened to Eija?"

"There was an accident," Ranma said.

"The shoe lockers blew up," Eija muttered, pantomiming an explosion. "Boom."

"What?" the male Saotome said. "Those...those..."

"I already talked to them, Dei-chan," Ranma said. "Now other issues...Naiki!"

Naiki flinched aside at the tone of voice.

"Hai, Okaasan!" Naiki said swiftly.

"You were fighting, and you used your powers," Ranma said. "I'm assuming something nasty and supernatural attacked the school and you were the only one to notice it, right?"

"Uh...uh...well, there was a challenge..." Naiki said, blushing.

"Oh, well you can't ignore a challenge," Ranma agreed seriously. "It must have been extremely tough opponent."

"There were three of them..." Naiki noted.

"And they had excellent teamwork?" Ranma asked.

"Not exactly..."

"So your reasons for blasting away on your first day of school?"

"They said girls couldn't be martial artists and said Eija and I had to give up if they won," Naiki protested.

"And you decide to disprove them by going overboard like some untrained pk-kid or waking latent?" Ranma demanded. "What do I track down those gurus, priests and mystics for if not to teach not to go Akira?"

"Sumimasen," Naiki said, embarrassed.

"We'll see about that," Ranma said, smirking.

**********

"...and so I reasoned that I should detonate the shoe lockers," Sousuke explained to Mao. "Unfortunately there was a civilian that apparently did not hear instructions to clear out. Injuries were, fortunately, minor and we left her in the care of her mother. The individual who tampered with the locker is still unknown."

"You blew up a civilian?" Mao asked, vaguely amused given the fact that it appeared the situation was resolved.

"Yes, one Eija Satomi," Sousuke said.

"Oh, one of the kids you asked the background check on?" Mao asked, a little more interested in that. "That means you had contact with her mother. Our suspected freelancer."

"Is she as hot as her picture?" Kurz asked.

"Yes, also..." and here Sousuke gritted his teeth for a moment. "...I believe that she may have recognized my purpose here in school."

Even Kurz turned a bit cautious at that.

"Are you sure about that?" Mao asked.

"This isn't some sort of paranoia, is it?" Kurz asked. "Like the plaster bust you shattered? Or the guy who couldn't hold a scalpel straight in biology class?"

"No, I am quite certain she knows what I am here for," the sergeant said. "She stated that if anything else threatened her children that 'the people responsible for each of us' would hear about it. If she assumed I was a normal high school student, wouldn't she have said 'parents' instead?"

"That is an odd phrasing," Mao said. "I guess we'll have to look into it."

"Don't worry, you have just the man for the job," Kurz said, smiling. "I'll have her wrapped around my finger and telling everything she knows before you know it."

The blonde sniper's grin could almost light up the room on its own, so brimming was it with confidence.

****

Sixteen hours later.

"Lesbian," a certain red-head said to a flabbergasted blonde smooth-talker, her hand held out in a stop gesture inches from his face. "Go away."

And then Ranma walked out of the supermarket, grumbling.

Over the radio, Kurz could hear Mao chortling hysterically.

"Laugh it up, Sergeant Major," Kurz said. "But who does this leave to figure out what she's doing?"

The laughing stopped.

****

Ranma's morning routine, the nordic art of stav this time, came to an end and behind her, all three of her children did as well. Unlike her father, she found the morning was best suited to light exercise meant to awaken the chi and body cleanly and completely, bringing the mind into a clear and alert state.

She took in a deep breath and looked about at her kids.

Eija was predictably easing out of a deep meditative state as she came to a graceful end to the kata. Naiki had a less graceful end to her kata, some seconds after Eija, and a rather light and fractured meditative state. Deimosu had a physically perfect performance with even a spice of his own personality to the kata, but Ranma doubted he'd even bothered to try to enter a meditative state.

"Okay, that should be it," Ranma said. "I'll get started on breakfast. Dei-chan collect the axes please. Eija make the lunches and Naiki, set the table. That should settle the shower schedule, so no bickering."

"Hai, Okaasan."

"Hai, hai."

"Right, 'kaasan."

As Ranma turned to their kitchen area, she handed her norse axe to Deimosu and watched as Naiki went to take her shower. As the woman reached the counter, she flinched to watch the butterfly land lightly in front of her and transform into a message.

"What's that an exorcism? Rogue demon? Haunted house?" Deimosu asked, eager for a story of adventure.

"They need a feng shih," Ranma said with a grumble.

"Boring," Deimosu said.

"I'll have to get out the monkey suit," his mother said in grumbling manner of agreement.

"But you've always told us Feng Shui is very important," Eija said as she opened the fridge.

"Feng shui is important. Acting as a feng shih to clueless executives or superstitious newlyweds is boring," her mother said. "At least it pays well. And its a cover."

Naiki came out of the shower and moved to her room to collect the last of her things for school. Deimosu went to take his turn in the shower.

Ranma finished the breakfast and carried it out to the table as Naiki started setting the dishes.

Deimosu finished his shower, and, after setting out the bentos, in went Eija.

Talk was light at the breakfast table, mostly reminders of what was happening later that day and individual plans for the most part. The last bit before the day began and the kids went to school while Ranma attended to her job was always discussing what sort of training each would get that afternoon.

"This afternoon, Eija, situational awareness training. Don't flinch like that. You should be at least situationally aware enough to note someone planting an explosive charge in the same room as you."

"Deimosu, meditation. Contemplative meditation, not active, no katas. You're slacking off on the internal again and don't think I don't notice the difference between a meditating aura and concentrating one."

"Naiki, I think I've already told you what you need to do. I'll expect an answer."

"Hai...okaasan," Naiki said glummly.

"Watch your backs," Ranma said, kissing each of her kids on the forehead before sending them off.

When they'd been kids the kiss before she left them had been to reassure them. Now, as teenagers, it was mostly to get a rise out of them.

It was fun watching them get embarrassed sometimes after all.

And maybe it still worked for a little bit of reassurance.

After that it was time for her to get ready for her own day. Checking the clock she had plenty of time before her meeting, so time to get some shopping in first.

****

Ranma wasn't in the best mood to be an acting feng shih after that gaijin had started to hit on her in the supermarket.

She'd gotten used to that on occasion and was usually more polite, however, some people just set her on edge. The type that felt that success of their mission was a foregone conclusion fell into that category.

Those people needed putting down in a hard and humbling manner.

Still, here she was, in her red business skirt and jacket combination, hair pulled back into a conservatively mystic bun, and looking out of a fashionable pair of John Lennons, waiting for her client to come down to the lobby and meeting her.

One of these days she was going to ask why her preferred sunglasses were called "John Lennons."

"Satomi-san," a voice called out, attracting the red-head's attention.

Years of battling demons were all that kept the red-head from reacting to who the client had sent down to meet him. If she'd seen this name on the job contract, she'd have turned it down.

The woman stepped forward and bowed politely to the woman in front of her.

"I'm Nabiki Hibiki," the woman said.

That brought a bit of a reaction from Ranma, but fortunately his one-time to be sister-in-law misread it.

"Yes, a mouthful, I know, I should have thought harder about who I married," she said with a smirking laugh. "Anyway, I'm glad to see you. Usually, I'd ask my brother-in-law to handle this sort of thing, but he's unavailable and time is important here."

"Is this for a business location or personal?" Ranma asked coolly.

"A bit of both," Nabiki said, looking over her feng shih very carefully. "My husband and I are looking to start a family soon and moving out of the family home and there'll be a dojo on site."

"Shall we take this discussion somewhere private then?" Ranma asked, keeping her best professional attitude on.

"Yeah, that might be a good idea," Nabiki agreed vaguely. "I've got the files on the prospects in another room."

"Is there something wrong?" Ranma asked.

"No..." Nabiki said quietly. "Just, when I saw the name, it reminded me...of an old friend, but you're obviously not who I was thinking of. Should have known, you use completely different kanji."

"That would be a great coincidence, wouldn't it," Ranma said with a smirk as Nabiki lead her to a private conference room. "Now, how soon is your family coming?"

"A little more than seven months," Nabiki said with a flush. "Our first."

"Congratulations, Hibiki-san," Ranma said with a bow. "Now, what sort of work do you do. I assume your husband is a martial artist given the dojo?"

"Yeah, and he...travels...alot," Nabiki said, as if hesitant to explain. "I work in advertising, I'll be transferring to this branch in five months."

"When you talk about travelling," Ranma said. "Is there something to that that's a concern?"

"Well..."

Ranma never imagined she'd see Nabiki at a loss for words, or looking so hopeless and coming to her for help. It was all she could do not to add about fifty percent to her normal feng shih prices.

"Is there anything you can do to keep a person from getting lost?" Nabiki finally blurted out in a rush.

"Let's look at your sites and files and see what's best," Ranma said with a smile.

*****

Mao watched as the red-head waited until another thirty-something met her in the lobby and moved to another room to discuss things. A brief trip to the lobby of the office building found three advertising firms, a law firm and several investment companies.

"She's starting to look like a high-priced fortune teller all right," Mao noted quietly to herself.

Of course, that could just have been a cover.

She sat silently out of the way as Ranma came out with her client and both prepared to head out into the city.

What followed was four hours of travelling to three different places around the country, spots of land ripe for some sort of development.

"Feng shui," Mao muttered as she noted some of the books the red-head brought out. "That's a self-sufficient cover, almost a gold mine."

*****

"This is the ideal site for your situation in the long run. Properly developed it will be a resevoir of creativity and prosperity, as well as being as easy to find as it can be," Ranma said, wondering if the last was enough to deal with the Hibiki curse. "But the problem is, there are several elements working against a construction here, but they are not insurmontable. The cost is more in time than money given a reliable contractor, but that seems to be your concern."

"How long are we talking about?" Nabiki asked.

"I'd estimate ten months in total, but again, it depends on your contractor," Ranma said. "Will you need me to work with your architect?"

"I think my brother-in-law will be available for that," Nabiki said. "Isn't there any other way to make this work?"

"This other option would be ready much sooner," Ranma said, pointing to another one. "But it isn't the best for your needs. It isn't terrible, but it isn't great either. This first choice, your family prospers. The second choice, in respect to your family, is in mostly in repose. A brief period of instability and then a long term of happiness."

"I'll see what I can do," Nabiki said, thinking hard about it. "What about the third option?"

"It is in a dangerous site for a home," Ranma said firmly. "It makes people and spirits curious. That's good for restaurants or entertainment places, but not for family homes."

"Gotcha," Nabiki said. "Well, thanks for your help. I assume I'll be contacted for a bill."

"I wouldn't worry too much about that Hibiki-san," Ranma said with a smirk. "I can be a bit generous for a newly growing family. I'm a mother myself."

"Now you're making me suspicious," Nabiki said with a laugh.

"If there are any problems, Hibiki-san," Ranma said. "Do not hesitate to call. I will come as soon as able."

"If there's something we need you for, I'll ask for you," Nabiki said. "Same contact?"

Ranma shook her head and handed over a mostly blank business card with only a phone-number in black, simple print on the front.

"You can reach me there," Ranma said. "Perhaps next time I can meet your sisters."

"That'd be interesting," Nabiki said. "At least one of them would get a bit more paranoid than me."

Ranma bowed politely with a smile and then walked out of the building, breathing a sigh of relief for having lasted so long in Nabiki's presence without giving herself away.

She checked her watch and noted there was still some time before school ended, maybe some lunch would be a good idea.

****

Mao grabbed her tray and looked about, relieved that the KFC her target had chosen was so full.

It made things very easy.

She came up beside the red-head in the business dress and looked about in consideration before seeming to look down at Ranma and just noticing her.

"Oh! Excuse me," Mao said. "Do you mind if I sit here? I can't seem to find any other seats."

The red-head looked around for a moment before shrugging.

"Fine with me," she said. "Sit 'er down."

Mao grimaced as she felt a brief flush of uncertainty look over her face.

Intellectually, this should have been just the same as seducing a man she wasn't particularly attracted to, but it was quite a bit different. And apparently that difference was telling, because where the red-head had originally just gone back to eating, now she was staring at Mao.

"Is something wrong?" the mercenary asked non-chalantly.

"Yeah," Ranma said. "You're trying to look at me like someone attracted to women, but you're reacting like a straight woman."

"Damn, this woman is sharper than I thought," Mao thought.

"Did you lose a bet or something?" Ranma asked, looking about. "Some college friends out there watching you make a fool out yourself?

Mao released a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, something like that," she said.

****

"Well, another day and another set of classes," Kyoko said with a smile as she walked into the courtyard with Kaname. "I wonder what'll happen today."

"Hopefully nothing like yesterday," Kaname said with a sigh. "The last thing I need is...urr."

Kaname and Kyoko froze as they stepped into the path of Deimosu Satomi, or he stepped into their path it was hard to tell.

The tall young man stared down at them with a glowering expression that left no doubt in either girl's mind that he knew what had happened yesterday.

"Uhh, good morning...Deimosu-san," Kyoko said.

"Nice day today?" Kaname added.

"Yeah, it would be a shame if anyone were to get blown up today," the martial artist responded.

Both girls laughed nervously.

A flash of movement and Sousuke was there, acting to take down the threat to Chidori. Deimosu rolled over the soldier's shoulder, but took control of the fall easily, reversing to send Sousuke flying across the courtyard.

He rolled into the fall himself, coming up standing with a pistol out and ready as he stared across at the Satomi and everyone in the school was staring at them all.

"Deimosu!" a feminine voice shouted as the martial artist's sister stepped in front of him. "What are you doing?" The rest was in Greek to keep the privacy of the discussion.

At about the same time, Kaname was moving over to where Sousuke was and putting him in a headlock.

"What are you doing pulling that thing out?" she demanded. "You military maniac! Get to class and stop embarrassing us.

Meanwhile a sheepish Deimosu, reminded of what their mother might do if they're fighting on a second day, was backwards toward the door as his sister advanced, looking decidedly upset.

"But they blow up a shoe locker on you!" Deimosu protested loudly.

"It wasn't on purpose," Eija said. "And Okaasan already talked to them!"

"Do you want to embarrass us in front of the whole school?" Kaname yelled.

"But Chidori, he was threatening you," Sousuke protested.

"That's because we...I mean YOU blew up his sister yesterday!" Kaname retorted.

Kyoko hmmed quietly as she pulled out her camera to take quick shots.

At the school entrance, Naiki Satomi was smiling broadly in a vaguely threatening manner at Kyoko. The genki brunette responded by taking a picture of the pose.

Then the green-haired girl turned about to give a red-eye to Kaname and Sousuke.

"What is she...is she!?" Kaname growled before letting go of Sousuke and starting to head over toward Naiki, forgetting for the moment what the girl was capable of.

"Wait! Chidori, you mustn't let your opponent provoke you into unwise actions," Sousuke said.

"Sister!? Not you too!" Eija said. "Class, class! You're going to get us into trouble."

"Out of my way Sousuke," Kaname shouted.

"They're full of energy today," Kyoko noted.

****

As recess came, Eija walked sheepishly over toward Sousuke, Kaname and Kyoko.

"I'm sorry about my siblings, they're overprotective," Eija said.

"I can sympathize," Sousuke said. "An injury to a compatriot is certainly cause for concern, but I also cannot allow a threat to..."

And in came the harisen.

"Quiet you, it's your fault to begin with," Kaname said harshly before bowing in apology to Eija. "Sorry again."

"That's fine, I've had worse in training," Eija protested. "I should have been paying more attention myself. So it's both our faults. That's why Okaasan is having my train in situational awareness this afternoon."

"You've had worse injuries than being blown up by a crazed military nut?" Kyoko asked casually.

"I once punched wrong in iron hand practice and broke my arm in three places," Eija said.

"Indeed, the perils of training are many," Sousuke agreed. "The first time I learned survival skills, I almost skinned myself rather than the meal."

"Mmm," Eija noted, nodding. "I misidentified an herb once and ended up sick for three days."

"And then there's the first time I encountered a hangfire," Sousuke said. "Shot myself in the shoulder before I realized what it was."

Kyoko and Kaname arched eyebrows as the two switched back and forth comparing past injuries.

"So when are they going to start showing their scars?" Kaname asked no one in particular quietly.

****

"So, what's the bet?" Ranma asked her lunch-guest.

"Hmm?" Mao asked crafting as much of a college appearance as she could. "Oh,yeah. One of my friends saw you looking at some other women, we started talking. One thing led to another and...I'm supposed to come over here and ask you out."

"Being straight," Ranma said. "What did you plan to do if I said yes?"

"I don't think we thought it out that far," Mao said, giving herself an embarrassed expression. "So would you have said yes?"

"Probably not," Ranma said. "I don't do flings and I'm not looking for someone."

"Busy life?" the mercenary asked.

"I just moved to the area in the last few days and already I've been called on two jobs," Ranma said, leaning her head back and pulling her hand up to her face. "I have no time to finish setting up my own home past the basics."

"Wow," Mao said. "Are you that good a feng shih?"

"Eh?" Ranma's head inclined upwards slightly. "Say that again."

"You're a feng shih, aren't you?" Mao said, looking for some outward sign of the profession.

Unfortunately, Ranma's books and references were in her bag with the tools for the trade. There wasn't anything visible that would point to that, and the last time Mao could remember the books being out was an hour ago, too long back.

"Damn, slipped up a bit," Mao said shifting into her more normal frame and attitude.

Ranma straightened and looked across the table at Mao.

"Are you with soldier-boy?" Ranma asked.

"Sousuke yeah," Mao said.

"Should have realized this was coming," Ranma said.

"You speak Mandarin?" Mao asked.

"I can manage," Ranma said, making the switch. "So, what are you looking for?"

"We'd like to know what you're doing here," the mercenary said.

"Like I said, I just moved here," Ranma said shrugging. "It's been a while since I've been back home."

"And your kids?" Mao asked.

"Are my kids," Ranma said. "Pure and simple."

"That's not a cover?" Melissa asked, a bit surprised.

"You're wondering how a lesbian had children," Ranma said with a smile.

They looked across at each other for several seconds before either spoke.

"You don't mind if we keep an eye out for you?" Melissa asked.

"Like I said, I should have expected it," Ranma said. "Still, I was hoping for a place without weirdness we didn't bring ourselves. But here I am, first couple of days, and I have a blue-haired tomboy giving me headaches."

"We've found she can be loud, ourselves," Mao agreed with a laugh.

Ranma looked at her curiously.

"Didn't they tell you why you're guarding her?" Ranma asked.

"Her father works in the UN," Melissa said. "I assumed it had something to do with that."

Ranma sighed and shook her head.

"Anyway," Ranma said. "If my kids stay safe, we don't have a problem. I'll even give you a word if I think something's funny."

"That'll be appreciated," Mao said, nodding. "It'd be good to have an old veteran behind us watching our backs."

"What's that about old veteran?" Ranma intoned grimmly, narrowing her eyes.

"You don't look the type to care much about comments like that," the ex-marine smirked, leaning forward closer.

"Maybe not, but there're principles involved," Ranma said mock seriously, waving her hand back. "You should know that yourself. I get enough of that out of my kids."

"You're lucky," Mao said. "At least your kids aren't about to hit on you or anything."

"Oi, brats and kids," Ranma said. "Even if they act out, you'd at least think they'd listen to you."

"I know," the marine said. "You'd think we were the adults from Charlie Brown. Wah Wah Wah!"

Ranma laughed.

"Speaking of which," she said. "I should be heading back home. Have some training routines I need to set up for when my kids get home. Share a cab since we're probably heading the same direction?"

"I've got my own ride, actually," Mao said, standing up.

"That's lunch then," Ranma said, also standing up as she loading her food onto the tray to take it to the trash.

She was walking past Mao again when she paused and turned toward the marine with smirk.

"Thanks for not asking the question," she said.

Mao nodded and then watched her walk off, a picture of casual grace. A few minutes after Ranma was gone, Mao slipped a small receiver into her ear.

"How're things at the school?" she asked.

"Aside from Sousuke, the objective and two of the Satomi kids trying to kill each other?" Kurz said. "Not much."

Mao shook her head and sighed.

"By the way?" Kurz asked. "What's the question you didn't ask?"

"Private," Mao said firmly.

****

"This is getting boring pretty fast," Poseiden noted in disappointment. "There's nothing happening they're needed for."

"Patience, this issue with the mercenaries is turning interesting," Zeus said.

"Bah, there're already common mortals prepared to deal with that," Poseiden protested.

"So what do you suggest?" Zeus asked.

"Feh, I'd thought you'd have more in mind than to just sit and wait more years for our bet to work out," Poseiden said.

"You've heard Hecate," Zeus said. "We can't be stretching our restricted licenses too much or she can't cover our actions. And with Morrigan in charge of the case, what do you think the punishments will be."

"Hecate said, Morrigan will..." Poseiden growled. "You're listening to a woman over this? In fear of a woman?"

"That's, right," Zeus said, smirking as his brother stomped off in a fit of constrained rage. "I haven't had the pleasure of either of their companies yet, and I'd like to keep on their good side."

Meanwhile, behind his back Zeus held a clay figure and an assortment of photographs that burned quietly together in his crackling hands until all that was left was ash.

"I think your daughter is fit to be rescued by my son," Zeus thought with a smirk in regards to his brother.


	4. Turbulence

"Eija can you clean up the wide area of the warehouse before we get started on training?" Ranma asked her dark-haired daughter as she held a bag of small clear pieces of glass.

Eija looked past their established living quarters and the small kata space they'd already established toward the mostly bare warehouse beyond it and swallowed nervously.

"Of course, Okaasan," she said.

That said, Ranma looked to her son and pointed toward the kata space.

"You need to start meditation," she said. "Try the roof. It'll be quieter."

"Hai, 'kaasan," Deimosu said with a sigh.

"Naiki..." Ranma started to say as Deimosu walked back out of the building to leap to the top of the building.

"WAAH!!" Eija's voice called out from the other part of the warehouse.

"Missed the first one already," Ranma muttered under her breath, shaking her head.

In front of her, her green-haired daughter was looking around past, towards Eija was staring at a spreading pool of oil.

"Anyway, Naiki...Naiki, are you listening?" Ranma declared, snapping her fingers. "You did what I asked?"

"Yeah," Naiki said. "They said they're ready for you to come by anytime."

"Don't get distracted Eija!" Ranma called over her shoulder without looking.

The crash that followed was punctuated at the end with a plaintive "itai."

"Good," Ranma said, nodding. "You think they'd be there right now?"

"Might be," Naiki said, shrugging and trying not to give attitude just now when her mother appeared to be so casual.

"Eija, Naiki and I will be gone for a bit," Ranma called back and then added something. "Check stability first."

This was answered by another crash and the sound of Eija trying to chase everything she'd just stacked on an old table.

Ranma shook her head, eyes closed and sighed.

"It'll take her two hours to get things cleaned at this rate," Ranma muttered with a bit of disappointment. "That's a lot of work to be done. Anyway, back to the campus, Naiki."

"Right," the green-haired girl said, still firmly embarrassed at the task she was about to have to look forward to..

"Don't spill that way!!" Eija shouted as they left the warehouse.

****

Issei Tsubaki and the other members of the Amateur Karate Club turned around as they heard a knock on wood at the door. They turned to see a red-headed woman in her thirties wearing a red business dress.

Behind her was Naiki Satomi coming in and looking about like she'd rather be anywhere else.

The three fighters that the girl had beaten earlier that week gritted their teeth when they saw her. She stuck her tongue out at them in response, and shortly thereafter was whacked in the back of the head by her mother.

"Hi," the woman said. "I understand you had an impromptu match with my daughter."

"I heard she cheated," Issei protested, walking forward to stand in front of the woman defiantly. "She used a weapon or something."

"Not quite," Ranma said, looking towards her daughter. "She got reckless and used something she's not supposed to use in normal challenges."

"So you're saying you want a rematch?" Issei asked.

"I'm saying she owes you a rematch," Ranma said. "However, I also heard something about woman being incapable martial artists."

"That's right," one of the large other members said coming forward. "And I don't think there's anything you should be saying about it, given your coming in here in your heels and secretary's attire."

Issei sweatdropped a little.

"Did Naiki-chan tell you who her teacher was?" Ranma asked with a casual smile and closed eyes.

Naiki looked at the expression and backed carefully away.

"I don't particularly care what dojo you enrolled her in, lady," the large man said. "Women shouldn't be doing martial arts."

Ranma opened her eyes, still smiling and lowered her head slightly.

"Care to test that?" she asked. "Because I'm Naiki's teacher."

"Fine," Issei said. "I'll take you on, lady. Tell me when you're ready."

"How's now," the red-head asked. "Oh, don't mind the suit, I don't wear anything I haven't tested for use."

"Ohhhkay," Issei said, looking back towards his compatriots. "Let's go then!"

The young-man entered stance, started to chamber an exploratory jab...and found himself face down in the floor with on arm twisted behind him.

All in roughly one point five seconds, during which, his opponent had moved one arm and one hand, which was still holding Issei's thumb in a rather uncomfortable position that somehow extended to the entire arm.

"S...sempai!" the mountainous karatekas called out.

"You see," Ranma said, turning to her daughter. "This is why you don't underestimate people. This kid holds himself well enough that he should be able last at least half a minute, but he assumed I was weak and opened himself right up."

"Hai, Okaasan," Naiki said.

Issei was released as Naiki answered, and the young-man scrambled for his glasses as he stood up and looked at the woman again.

"Now I think it's Naiki's turn," the red-head said as she walked to the side of the room and sat down.

"Great, finally my turn to beat you all up again," Naiki said smirking as she walked forward, cracking her knuckles.

****

"The place is dirtier than it was when I found it!" Eija sighed bitterly.

****

Up above, Deimosu breathed in and out, trying to move into a meditative state.

"I wish I had situational awareness training," he muttered.

****

"A further report from Urzu-2 on the freelancer, Ranma Satomi," Commander Kalinin said. "She's ruling it as most likely a red herring."

"So it's not the same person?" Captain Testarossa asked as she looked over the short transcript.

"No, she's confirmed it is the same woman," the bearded man said. "But feels the woman is honestly just establishing a home for herself and her children. There is an offer to give warnings if she notices anything out of the ordinary."

"Commander, can you play the audio from these lines here," Tessa asked.

"Of course, Captain," the Commander said, nodding as he brought up the audio file.

"Now I've got blue-haired tomboys giving me headaches...didn't they tell you why they're having you guard her?"

The pauses were the most interesting to Testarossa.

"Headaches," Kalinin repeated. "Could she be talking about Resonance?"

"I doubt it," Tessa said. "She's a lot older than all the Whispered we've identified. Besides, Resonance doesn't feel like a headache."

The girl walked to the file and opened it up. They had spotty information on the woman, which provided for an understandable paranoia.

"Mystic consultant," she read aloud. "She could have another type of ESP, something that the Whispered interferes with."

"Urzu-2 seems assured that there is no danger from her," Kalinin said. "And has said that she plans to keep an eye on the woman."

Tessa was quiet for a long minute before giving her answer.

"Note the possible presence of ESP or other talent in her file and pass it on, then," Tessa said after a minute's thought. "We'll trust the agents on the ground."

"Yes, ma'am," the Commander said, nodding. "Is there something wrong ma'am, you seem quite hesitant somehow."

"There's something we're missing," the Captain said. "And I'm afraid we won't see it until too late. How is the other end of the investigation going?"

"Intelligence reports that the search is narrowing," he said. "They should have a target for us soon. If we're lucky, this situation may be resolved before the Okinawa trip the objective is supposed to be taking coming up."

"Let's hope for that," Tessa said.

****

Elsewhere, a small party of warriors geared up and prepared for a journey.

"North, to Korea," the leader, a pink-haired youth said. "We'll find brides worthy of our Dynasty."

"Ehh, is that what we're going for?" the second, a large man with dark hair said.

"Didn't your father...outlaw kidnapping outsider girls," the third asked. He was a slender fellow with reddish hair.

"My father's curse makes him soft," the leader said. "But I am a true Musk and I will see new, strong blood brought back to our people. All will come true as the dream told me."

****

"Is it confirmed?" Captain Testarossa asked.

"Confirmed," Mardukas said. "Target is destroyed."

"Without the facility for their research," Kalinin said. "The KGB will have no reason to target Kaname Chidori."

"Then we can recall the guard on her," Tessa said, a relieved tone in her voice.

****

Kagome growled as Sousuke showed up in front of her. How dare that pervert show his face to her after last night. She didn't even bother listening to what he had to say, something about collecting garbage.

Collecting garbage was right. That's all his mind did was collect garbage and then spew it right back out at her.

Garbage about pipe bombs and letter bombs and assassins and what ever else his commando, paintball overdosed brain came up with.

"Get back in line and get on the plane, Sousuke!" Kaname yelled.

"But, Chidori..."

"Get!"

"I need..."

"NOW!"

"Yes, Ma'am," Sousuke declared, snapping to attention and saluting before turning about to get in line.

Kaname sighed expressively as the military nut walked back into line, and her eyes turned toward another situation.

Walking in line past her position was Eija Satomi, and she was the only person in class with about three feet between her and the people in front and behind her.

The sound of a camera click brought Kaname's eyes toward her side and saw Kyoko taking a picture of the oddity.

"You know, I've never seen so many people avoid such a cute girl before," Kyoko said.

"Yeah, well she's creepy," Kaname said. "What can you do?"

"Anyway, what's up with you, Kaname?" Kyoko asked. "Did you and Sousuke have a fight about something?"

"Stop saying stuff like that like he's my boyfriend," Kaname snapped in frustration, knowing that she wouldn't phase Kyoko at all.

"I'm not the one who keeps suggesting that," Kyoko teased as she looked around to find another shot to snap, catching a posing Naiki as she went into the plane with her class.

Kaname blinked as she noticed the girl, despite the cheerful pose, seemed to be sweating a lake going onto the plane.

"At least I'm not the only one out of sorts," Kaname said as she moved in behind the last group of kids.

"Naiki doesn't like flying," Deimosu Satomi said right in front of them with a cool sort of politeness. "Where's your bodyguard, Chidori?"

"Oh great, this day keeps getting better," Kaname said, eyes half-lidded.

"Don't worry," Kyoko said. "As soon as we're on the plane, everything will get better."

Behind the students came a tall, unshaven man with a rumpled black suit and dark spiky hair.

****

Kaname turned to look to the seat on her side, where the pale, dark-haired Satomi was looking out the window next to her.

"Yep," Kaname said, turning to look at Kyoko on her other side. "The day just keeps getting better."

"What's the matter with her?" Kyoko asked.

"Don't worry, lots of people are uncomfortable around me," Eija said looking back towards them, shrugging.

With that Kaname just felt worse. After all, Eija hadn't ever done anything...especially creepy...on purpose. She was actually a lot more normal than Sousuke in many ways. She just sort of generally was...creepy.

"Anyway, I love flying," Eija said as she looked out onto the ocean below. "The world is so serene from up here."

"What about your sister?" Kyoko asked, looking back to see Naiki clutching her chair and still sweating. "She should drink some water if she keeps sweating like that."

Click went the camera.

"Oh," Eija said, looking around cautiously. "She tried to pilot a helicopter once."

Kaname peeked over the back of her chair to watch Naiki, eyes twitching as she noticed the arms of the girl's seat cracking in her grip.

"I'm guessing it didn't go well," she said.

"She got about ten meters through the hangar," Eija said nervously.

Then her eyes focused straight ahead intently, widening worrisomely before she flinched, and the airplane jolted.

The airplane shook violently for a few seconds, punctuated by a high pitched scream from elsewhere in the plane.

"May I have your attention please," the voice on the intercom said. "We are currently experiencing..."

As the crew gave them reassurances, Kaname watched Eija take what looked like a scroll out of her purse and unroll a length of the thin parchment before quickly tearing a piece of it off and putting the rest in her purse.

"What are you doing?" Kaname asked as the girl took out a pen and started writing.

"Oh," Eija said hesitantly. "I'm just a little nervous, so...I'm doing a ritual for good luck."

"A good luck ritual?" Kaname asked. "Like a prayer to the gods or something?"

"To someone," Eija said, starting to the fold the piece of cloth several times until it resembled a butterfly.

That done, the girl took it up, cupped in her hands, to her mouth and breathed hard into the space she left between her fingers. In the same moment she spread her hands wide and the parchment was gone.

For a breath moment, as Eija breathed into her cupped hands, the world flashed into negative colors for Kaname, but the instance was too quick for her more than notice it.

"Just like with her sister before," Kaname muttered.

"Wow," Kyoko said. "You really can do magic."

"Oh, that was nothing," Eija said hesitantly. "Excuse me, I need to go calm down my sister before she damages something."

Kyoko and Kaname shifted momentarily to let her past.

"She's acting funny," Kaname said.

"Well, she's worried about her sister," Kyoko said, shrugging. "That's to be expected."

****

Sousuke watched as Eija Satomi moved from her seat and walked back toward her sister and start speaking in Greek.

"Uh, Naiki," Eija said, the green-haired girl whipped her head around towards the dark-haired one. "I need you to..."

"Are we all going to die?" Naiki asked.

"No, not yet," Eija said. "But, there's something important..."

"Because you'd know, right?" Naiki asked. "You'd know if we're going to die."

"You know what," Eija said hesitantly. "I think I'll talk to Deimosu first. Just...calm down, we'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" Naiki asked. "You don't feel us dying do you?"

"Nope, I'm not feeling anybody in the class dying," Eija assured her. "We're fine. Now, I'm going to go talk to Deimosu."

Sousuke arched an eyebrow and decided that now would be a good time for a restroom break. He was soon in the aisle walking slowly behind Eija.

He slowed down as he passed Eija and Deimosu talking to each other in undertones.

"Are you sure?" Deimosu asked.

"I felt it, violent sudden death," Eija said. "In the cabin just as the plane jolted."

Sousuke's eyes widened suddenly and he stopped.

"You didn't tell Naiki did you?" Deimosu asked.

"I started to until she started asking if we're all going to die," Eija said, sighing. "I already sent a message to Okaasan."

"You have a means of communication?" Sousuke asked outloud. "My cell phone isn't receiving here."

Deimosu turned toward him with narrowed eyes.

"You speak Greek," he said accusingly.

"If your sister's right, we're in a dangerous situation," Sousuke said. "And it is best to get information out as soon as possible. So, do you have a means of communication?"

"It's...complicated," Eija said uncertainly.

"Who do you want to contact?" Deimosu asked, drawing out a scroll.

****

Ranma sighed and shook her head as she saw a butterfly drifting into her home and landing on the counter.

"At least a job will give me something to do while..." Ranma stopped talking as she came to the message and recognized the handwriting.

"Pilot's murdered."

"Kuso," Ranma whispered.

A few minutes later a second butterfly landed in front of her and unfolded with a name and cell phone number along with a short message.

****

Melissa Mao blinked as a butterfly landed on the table in front of her and proceeded to unfold into a piece of paper with writing on it.

"The hell...?" she said as she reached down to pick up the paper as if trying to see if it was real.

A moment later, her cell phone started to ring off to her side.

Opening the cell phone and answering she heard a familiar voice on the other end.

"Did you just get a butterfly?" Ranma's voice asked.

****

Hecate looked around the area, wondering if anybody was observing her just now. The risks were getting a bit more...to tell the truth...risky.

Zeus's dream-sending skirted the edges of the safety zone on the search pattern the Eyes of Ra had on looking for Ranma Saotome. Fortunately, she was on duty and it was a simple matter to delay the fact that someone was influencing mortals connected to the martial artist and muddle the identity.

Of course she could have just erased the record, but that wouldn't be useful.

The time was coming that she were going to need this little distraction she was preparing.

Which reminded her, certain files needed to be copied and sent.

She had her part in what was, coming, best to do it well.

****

"Would you care to explain this?" Mao asked holding up the sheet of paper with a brief tactical assessment of the situation on the plane as she faced Ranma outside the apartment they'd been running the watch on Kaname from.

Ranma was dressed in a dark-colored clothing that seemed comfortable and easy to move in, while fitting to the appearance of just someone out and about around town.

"Later," Ranma said. "I'm assuming you got the word out?"

"We'll talk about it on the way," she said, grabbing her basic gear and moving out the door. "We'll need to pick someone up, and then straight to work. Some people are going to want to talk to you."

Ranma nodded and moved aside to let her lead the way.

They were driving down the Tokyo streets within minutes, Ranma grimacing as she realized she could move much faster through traffic on her own.

"We found the plane's transceiver, they're in North Korean air space now, flying west," Mao said.

"How's soldier boy going to act on this one?" Ranma asked.

****

As Ranma and Mao talked events were going on in the plane.

"While they're in air?" Mao's voice asked as two teens started circulating in the aisles. "Sousuke is probably trying to identify the terrorists and looking for any devices."

Sousuke's face was serious as he walked up and down the aisles eyes scanning the people and items around him.

"Can he be subtle?" Ranma's voice asked.

A man in a dark suit noted Sousuke moving about and frowned before sitting back in his seat complaining about kids wandering about the plane.

"In this situation?" Mao asked. "He should be good. What about your kids."

"Deimosu should be looking for somewhere quiet and out of the way," Ranma said. "If he can get to the luggage hold that would be perfect."

The scene focused on Deimosu walking back toward the restroom and the elevator Sousuke had told him about. There wasn't much else he could do, his magic knowledge was limited and he couldn't start a fight while they were in mid-air.

"Eija will be looking for the terrorists too," Ranma said. "She'll stop supressing senses and start looking. And she can get places no one would expect."

Eija passed without attention, sunglasses off her face and the red of her irises filling out into her sclera as she opened her senses. She looked reflexively down at her hands and noted uncomfortably the red that splattered her own hands and then looked away at the people around her.

"You have a third kid, don't you?" Mao asked as the scene drifted toward the green-haired Satomi.

"Naiki's probably useless," Ranma's voice said reluctantly. "Will be until she gets off the plane."

Naiki had her eyes closed and had thoroughly destroyed the arms of her seat, much to the discomfort of the kids sitting next to her.

"Hopefully, she'll stay unaware until the plane lands," Ranma thought to herself, not speaking aloud. "If she decides she has to fight in that state, she might destroy the plane."

****

"Care to explain the butterfly now?" Mao asked, the scene switching back to her car.

"A spirit charm," Ranma said. "It carries a message to a specific person."

"Spirit charm?" Mao said. "Is that like a spell?"

"A small one," Ranma admitted.

"So how did your daughter know what was going on?" Mao asked. "This sit-rep says the passengers are unaware."

"They killed someone," Ranma said. "Eija can feel that."

Mao looked at Ranma carefully.

"What are you people?" Melissa asked as she pulled the car to a stop besides the third member of her team.

Whether Ranma would have answered or not was left unknown as Kurz pulled himself into the car.

"What's up Sergeant Major?" he asked. "Was I just getting set for some R&R. Hey wait, isn't that...are you looking for a threesome then?"

Both women turned to look in the back seat, a dark look on their faces.

"It was just a joke," Kurz said nervously.

****

Tessa looked at the situation report and slumped in her quarters, she really should have known this was coming.

Actually, she had known.

She'd felt the situation was dangerous and she'd done to take countermeasures. Now they had a plane of hostages over North Korea to handle.

All the relevant past reports were sitting in front of her.

She'd pegged Ranma Satomi as a possible Sensitive. Given Sergeant Sagara's other reports she should have done so for her children. And that certainly increased the chances that someone would try something.

"This is my fault," she said quietly. "I shouldn't have relaxed."

A knock pulled her eyes to the door and she gathered herself together.

"We've recovered Urzu-2, Urzu-6 and the freelancer," Commander Kalinin said. "They're in the briefing room."

"All right, Commander," Tessa said. "I guess I should go meet her."

She pulled herself together and walked out to the corridors heading toward the briefing room. As she walked in, the red-head was standing near the modium with her arms crossed.

"Miss Satomi," she said in a polite manner. "I wish we could be meeting under different circumstances."

The woman looked up at her as she approached and then squinted.

"Don't worry about it," the woman said. "I meet most people this way. You're the same as the tomboy?"

"Tom...you mean Miss Chidori?" Tessa said. "Yes, we're both Whispered. I understand you get headaches around us?"

"Anytime I meet something I haven't seen before," Ranma said. "Enough exposure it goes away. What's up with things? Melissa over there said you're tracking the plane."

"We think they'll be landing soon," the Captain said. "Near the West Korean Bay. We'll be in position soon."

"Hope you don't mind if I insist on taking part," Ranma said.

"I understand your feelings," Tessa said. "But I don't think its necessary."

****

Kaname couldn't help but watch nervously as Sousuke walked about the plane, worried he'd cause an incident at any moment. Then she noticed him moving to the back of the plane, towards the restroom. That in itself wasn't much, but the way Eija Satomi moved to quietly in the same direction raised certain questions in her mind.

"Excuse me, Kyoko," Kaname said. "I think I have to go interrupt a club initiation."

"Huh?" Kyoko said. "What club?"

"The mile high club," Kaname muttered as she started stomping off toward the back of the plane.

She was walking out of the passenger area when someone grabbed her from behind and shoved her against the bulkhead.

"What are you doing out of your seat?" the tall man in front of her said darkly as he reached into his jacket for a gun.

A second man behind the first growled at his friend.

"What are you doing, we haven't landed yet," the second man demanded.

"Looks like the target's trying to hide to me," the first said.

"Target..." Kaname said nervously.

"Idiot," the second snapped. "Close your mouth."

"Just call it in to the psycho up front," the first said, not looking over his shoulder to note his partner silently knocked senseless from behind. "This means we don't need the dog and pony show later."

Kaname blinked as she saw that her rescuer was Eija, and then blinked again as Sousuke appeared and shortly had her first attacker out of action.

"Chidori, are you okay?" Sousuke asked.

"I'm going down," Eija said quietly, turning to face the two.

Kaname flinched as she saw the red that flooded Eija's eyes.

"Affirmitive," Sousuke said as he shoved the unconscious terrorists into the elevator after tying them up. "Take Chidori with you, your brother and I will handle the rest of things up here."

"One moment," Eija said, taking out a vile of red liquid and handing it to Sousuke. "I only have one dose, so you'll have to split it. It'll only last about two minutes, so wait until I start."

"Just do your thing," Deimosus said, coming from further back in the plane nodded in agreement and moved aside to let the girls past.

Kaname was quiet as she was led to a service elevator down into the cargo compartment. Then she exploded.

"What the hell is going on?!" she demanded. "These guys called me a target!"

"Someone's highjacking the plane," Eija said quietly. "They killed one of the pilot's about half an hour ago when we had that jolt."

"Why would someone highjack a plane just to get at me?" Kaname asked.

"I don't know," Eija said, taking a deep breath and as the red retreated from her sclera back into her iris. "But we're trying to stop it."

As she spoke the Satomi girl opened her purse and moved into a wide open space with a large, ornate circle drawn on it in chalk. She stepped around and over the chalk carefully, examining the features cautiously.

"How are a bunch of high school students going to stop this?" Kaname demanded.

Eija sat down and took a deep breath as she started focusing her thoughts.

"One moment, I have to do something," Eija said.

And then, briefly the world turned to negative colors again as the girl started chanting.

"Angel of Night, hear my prayer," she intoned...

Above, darkness crept through the plane as windows mysteriously clouded and light shut off until it seemed as if the plane was flying through darkest night.

"What the hell is going on?" Kyoko demanded.

Naiki twitched as she looked about, resisting the urge to blast outward with her power. She wasn't far enough gone yet to not realize that she'd blow the plane out of the sky that way.

Her nose told her blood had been spilled, and that was hardly comforting, but it wasn't a crash yet. At the same time, she was listening under the cover of complaining students to the grunts and thuds of someone systematically taking people out throught out the cabin.

Sousuke himself marveled as he walked through the aisles, perfectly able to see. What's more, the enemies he'd marked out and some others mentioned by the Satomi girl where easily marked out by red marks.

Strangely, the same red marks were on himself and the Satomis.

He wondered what was in that vial, it had tasted somewhat like blood.

The terrorists were aware that something was going on but in the dark, they were too slow to react and at too much of a disadvantage.

The darkness started to recede behind them as they reached the front cabin and moved in.

"What's going on?" a voice was demanding.

Sousuke froze as he took in the man standing there impossibly before him in the darkness. And yet there he was, almost scarlet under the effect of whatever sort of drug the girl had given him. Even the man's breath seemed to come and go in red mists.

"I don't know," the pilot said. "I've never had a malfunction like this before. It's like we've flown into a patch of night."

And then Deimosu moved. Gauron sensed the motion in the dark and dodged aside, swinging his gun around, only to have it disarmed by another unseen assailant. He was trying to counter another move before when he was knocked to the ground and he heard the click of a gun, most likely his own.

Finally the darkness receded completely, taking away with it the red visions Sousuke had been seeing on the terrorists and others.

Gauron smiled as he saw before him two teenaged boys, his eyes fixating on one of them.

"Well, Kashim," he said. "How about that."

"You know this man?" Deimosu asked.

Sousuke remained silent.

"Congratulations, kids," he said, smiling. "You've retaken the plane. You only have one problem."

"And that is?" Sousuke asked.

"I believe this plane was only fueled for Okinawa and back," Gauron said. "Isn't that right, co-pilot?"

"We're running on fumes now," the co-pilot commented. "I'm going to have to land at the nearest airport anyway."

"And guess where our destination is, eh, Kashim?" Gauron asked.

Sousuke grimaced as he watched the military airstrip below them come closer into view.


	5. Rescue

Several people finally noticed the unconscious men scattered about the deck and looking outside as the plane came to a landing, surrounded by tanks, AS units and fighting vehicles.

"No way!! Is that a soviet made RK-92?" someone shouted, looking outside. "MiG-21's, I can even see a T-34. Classic main-battle tank! We're not even in Japan."

Naiki swallowed nervously listening to the discussion, restraining herself and waiting for a particular thing to happen.

For the plane to stop.

****

"You in the air-plane, come to a complete stop and open your outer hatches. Prepare to be boarded and interrogated for violating our national air-space," a man outside was ordering through a megaphone as Sousuke took in the surroundings outside. "This is the Kanka region military, you have nowhere to go."

"I'd do what the man says," Gauron noted. "Those tanks and AS units don't look like they'd hesitate to reduce this airplane to scrap metal if they don't get what they want."

"I...I have to stop anyway," the co-pilot said nervously, pulling on the breaks. "We don't have any more fuel."

The sensation of movement came to a complete stop and slowly, under Sousuke's line of fire and close to Deimosu, Gauron stood up.

"The second round's to you, Kashim," Gauron said. "And these...interesting siblings. But I think the third rounds not starting to look too..."

The airplane shuddered as the sound of gunfire erupted outside.

"And that would be Naiki," Deimosu muttered.

****

"Something's gone wrong," Eija said, catching her breath. "We've landed."

"What did you just do back there?" Kaname asked. "Everything turned sort of backwards."

"I just asked for some darkness to cover them and let Sousuke and Deimosu see what I see," Eija said, a bit confused. "What do you mean backwards?"

"Like the negative of a photograph," Kaname said.

"It shouldn't have done anything like that," the pale, red-eyed girl said. "Unless there's something about you."

"There is nothing strange about me," Kaname protested.

"I...didn't mean to imp..."

The feel of the plane shaking and the sudden sound of gunfire interrupted the conversation.

****

Naiki tore through the men standing around outside the plane and dodged aside as the fighting vehicles turned the heavy machine guns toward her.

Several of the heavier bullets gouged deep lines long her arms and legs, and the occasional heavy bruise along her back. Baksai tenketsu training handled the smaller arms easily enough, but those heavier weapons stung painfully.

She reacted instinctively, she leaped up and landed on top of one of vehicles pelting her, landing in front of the soldier and ripping the machine gun out of his hand and away from the fighting vehicle.

The soldier dropped down into the vehicle as another APC started pelting her again. She dropped down on the other side of the fighting vehicle and tipped it over on its side before rushing out again.

A jeep pulled up in front of her, another tripod mounted machine gun pointing toward her, but it came in to close and she had it up and into the air slamming down on to another armored vehicle some distance away.

Ducking out of the immediate line of fire, she let herself fall into her power and focused downward. All about her the ground started to shake, large cracks appearing outward from her.

Then the ground exploded around her as the tank shells landed nearby, and Naiki landed yards away, battered, cut and bruised as she fell unconscious.

****

Gauron watched as Sousuke's eyes moved down into the plane, where the screams were rising from, and the other boy to look outside, probably looking for his sister.

In that moment he reached into his jacket and grabbed a small grenade. Leaving it behind he dodged past Sousuke out of the cabin and to the side of the doorway as the stun grenade exploded behind him.

Stepping back inside he picked the gun up from where Sousuke had dropped it and smiled at the glaring young man before leaping out the destroyed windows. Deimosu shook his head out from the concussive blast and growled as he watched the tall, dangerous man land below them and wave back up.

Behind them, armed men in dark clothing started filtering into the airplane through the hole Naiki had punched out.

The blonde Satomi grimaced and jumped out of the plane, following the madman out the window. At the very least, he was going to snuff that guy's smile out before they finished him.

Neither he, nor anybody else noted Sousuke slip down the plane's stairs to the decks that hadn't yet been breached by either Naiki or the terrorists. Down there, he was just one more confused civilian running around, at least until he found the service elevator again.

Gauron turned around and blinked as the young man landed behind him and then charged forward. He turned and fired his gun several times, watching the young man dodge aside of the bullets skillfully.

One bullet sparked off Deimosu's forehead, slowing him down, but not stopping him. Gauron smiled broadly as the attacks came in fiercely and he had to work ferociously to dodge them.

Whoever trained this boy was good, very good. The boy was better than him, at least as raw hand to hand attacks were concerned. He backed away quickly, finding enough space to let a heavy machine gun force Deimosu out of his pursuit.

And then Gauron stopped and shouted something in Korean.

"I suppose you're capable of causing a similar ruckus to her," the man said, pointing toward were some soldiers were carrying Naiki's unconscious form and dumping it as several machine gunners took aim. "Shall we postpone this, or shall these men open up on your immobile sister right now?"

Deimosu grimaced and shook his head with a grimace and raised his hands.

****

In the cargo bay of the jumbo jet, Eija quickly finished erasing the magic circle as the sound of the doors opening came to her and Kaname.

Both girls scattered to different corners of the plane's cargo.

"Okay, look for it, it's a yellow package," a man's voice said.

"Found it!" someone shouted.

Curiosity getting the better of her, Kaname started to inch forward to see what the men were doing. Which was how she knocked over the suitcase in front of her and soon found herself surrounded.

"Well, look who we have here," one of the men said. "I think there are some people waiting to see you."

"Let go of me, you freak!" Kaname shouted. "You can't do this sort of thing to people!"

"Get the little bitch out of here," some complained just as Kaname kicked out.

"Who're you calling a bitch?" the tomboy demanded.

The first gun she saw pointing at her in earnest made her quiet down quickly.

"Listen, bitch," the man said. "You're important to someone, but they said you just had to be alive. He didn't say we couldn't put a few unimportant holes in you."

"We have new orders on the device," another terrorist said. "They're going to refit a transport plane for the hostages since this one's no longer air-worthy. We'll just have to rig this bomb on that plane."

Biting her lip, Eija watched unseen as they took Kaname away.

"Damn it," she muttered as she took out her scroll to start another message. "This should have worked."

She heard the sound of the elevator and melted into the shadows to wait to see who came down, breathing a sigh of relief as she saw Sousuke.

"What happened?" she asked, stepping out of hiding.

"There wasn't enough fuel to keep flying," Sousuke said. "Where's Chidori?"

"Some men came in and found her," Eija said. "I...decided to stay unseen. Sorry."

"No need," Sousuke said. "Your brother and sister are also captured. And I also elected to fall back to be of more use later. Unfortunately, they'll be looking for me actively, and perhaps you."

"Me?" she asked. "I thought they're after Kaname."

"They appear to be interested in all three of you," Sousuke noted.

He noted the scroll in her hand as he found his bag.

"I'd advise saving the paper for now," he said. "Let's move to a safer location and we can contact my superiors."

"All right," she said.

****

"Well, Basil?" the slender Musk asked. "What do we do?"

"We wait until the base calms down," the prince said. "And then we go in for our prizes."

"Hey, I only saw two of the girls you mentioned," the other said. "The Green-hair and the blue-hair. Where's the dark-haired one?"

"I'd like to know too," Basil noted.

****

Sousuke frowned at the girl sitting next to him and chanting in a low voice. More pointedly, he considered the arc of concealing darkness between their little corner and the world outside. He knew that from outside it looked just like a normal if thick shadow, but was somewhat transparent from inside.

He'd heard rumors of such people, sensitives and kinetics and others, but this was the first time he'd worked with any. He'd originally assumed that their abilities were minor and perhaps a bit exaggerated by campfire stories.

He was finding the truth to be a bit more impressive than his assumptions.

At the same time, he was a bit underwhelmed by at least Naiki Satomi's actions, even if it had given them a bit of a distraction.

In any case it was time to make his report.

****

"As it stands," Sousuke said. "Kaname Chidori is captured, as are two of the Satomis. Naiki Satomi is injured but alive, I was not able to ascertain more than that."

He went on to discuss damage done to the enemy in the attempted retaking of the plane and the landing that followed, as well as the ongoing transfer of the hostages to the transport plane and the bomb reported by Eija Satomi.

"One last thing, Commander," Sousuke said. "It's Gauron."

"Are you certain?" Kalinin said, more surprised by this than he was by the report of how much damage they'd been able inflict. "I thought he was dead."

"I know, but it's definitely him," Sousuke said. "He has the scar from where I shot him."

"Understood, Urzu-7," Kalinin said. He was about to cut off the communication when their guest raised her hand to ask to be heard.

"Mind if I ask him to pass on a message for me?" Ranma asked.

Kalinin glanced over toward Tessa who nodded.

"Stand by for our guest expert, Urzu-7," Kalinin said before inviting Ranma over to the microphone.

"Soldier-boy, you've got my youngest daughter there," she said.

"Affirmative," Sousuke said.

"All right, tell her she's to follow your lead," Ranma said. "Remind her you're the sensei here. You'd probably say superior officer, but sensei will be easier for her to understand."

"Understood," Sousuke said.

"If she hasn't already, tell her to inform you what she can do, family secrets included," Ranma said. She took a breath and continued. "And also tell her drawing blood might be needed."

"Affirmative," Sousuke said. "Is there anything else, Ms Satomi."

"Tell her they're all grounded if they don't come back alive," Ranma said. "That's it."

"Keep looking for Kaname Chidori and the other ," Kalinin said. "And stay safe. Next contact will be at 2200, we'll let you know the next move then."

"Understood, sir," Sousuke said. "Urzu-7 out."

"That leaves us to plan the rescue then," Tessa said. "Ms Satomi, you've admitted that you're not used to military action, can we trust you to follow a plan?"

"Like I said, you're the senseis here," Ranma said.

"I'm surprised," Kalinin said. "Most of the time your sort of people tend to place more confidence in their own abilities over 'normal' people."

"Bah, skill and expertise overwhelm talent everywhere," Ranma said dismissing the concern. "But you're right, most psychics trust only the abilities that nobody else has and don't think crap through."

"All right," Tessa said. "Then you don't mind if I ask what you can do?"

"Don't mind," Ranma said. "All our eggs are the same basket, after all. I'm not good on the science terms though, so I'll just try to give practicals."

"Headache better?" Tessa asked.

"Getting there," Ranma said.

"Then let's get started," Tessa said.

Ranma took a deep breath and started to say what she could and could not handle.

****

Sousuke looked up from the radio to note Eija dragging a soldier into their corner and sitting down to continue her concentration on their cover.

"Did you hear?" Sousuke asked.

"Hai," Eija said. "I'm ready to do as you need, sensei."

"Then we find our comrades and wait for word," Sousuke said.

****

Naiki and Deimosu Satomi were kept under armed guard near three large trucks with trailers wired together.

A mobile lab unit.

It took a look to see that two Satomis were wearing a vest rigged with a detonator and bombs and that three heavy machine gun positions were placed about them. Naiki was still unconscious and lying on a cot with medical machines around her.

"Miss Chidori should be in one of the trailers," Sousuke said rationally. "This is bad. They have a squad strength there. This is likely a trap."

"I can get a closer look," Eija whispered.

"Are you confident of not being seen?" Sousuke said.

Eija nodded.

"Do it," Sousuke said. "See if you can find who has the detonator. And if there are any snipers."

Eija hesitated a moment.

"If I find any snipers, should I remove them?" Eija asked.

"I'd like to delay awareness of our presence as long as possible," Sousuke said. "But it would be best to remove all possible dangers."

"Delay the discovery," Eija said. "I understand."

She stood up and started to fade away.

Under the cover of the umisenken, Eija filtered in among the soldiers guarding her siblings, resisting the urge to fiddle with the machine guns or explosives that she knew nothing about.

She almost lost her focus as she got close to Naiki and saw that death was creeping up on her sister. It was hours away, and these villains would probably stop it completely, but that wasn't much comfort.

As Sousuke suspected, she found another squad of soldiers in hiding behind boxes deeper in the warehouse they'd taken their "special interests" to.

Taking a deep breath, she walked in among them and started the uncomfortable work.

She couldn't understand the Korean as she walked amongst them, but it was clear that they didn't realize anything weird was happening.

"Hey, watch where you're pushing," one of them said.

"You watch it," another protested quietly.

"Everyone keep your mouths shut," the squad leader said.

Eija was through like a ghost and out the other side.

A few pounds of force applied with expert percision to the right meridian points and slow build up of chi would have a particular effect.

Dim mak.

Eija aimed for the spleen.

It was a lethal attack, painful and sudden death by internal bleeding, but she didn't have time to closely study each target in the way that would make the non-lethal attacks most accurate and sure. If there was something anomalous about them, at the very least they'd be incapacitated with pain.

She needed that certainty.

However, as she left, it was obvious to her blood red eyes that the blackness of death was creeping up swiftly on the majority of the squad.

And she could already see more blood on her own hands.

She was at Sousuke's side and into view not long after.

"There's an ambush," she said. "But they're all dead or incapacitated in about thirty minutes. Naiki needs a doctor, or me."

The mercenary nodded.

"Any sign of the man from the cabin?" Sousuke asked.

"Not yet," Eija said. "And I'd only call him a man in the strictest sense."

"Agreed," Sousuke said. "I've had some experience with him. Can your sister hold out until the ambush is finished?"

"She has hours," Eija said. "But..."

"Then we'll move when the ambush is down," Sousuke said. "Get close and take out the man with the detonator and anybody near, those vests are jury-rigged, it doesn't look like they're wired to go anyway but with a detonator. I'll handle everybody else. As soon as I see you, I'll start firing. Got it?"

They sat and waited patiently, Eija feeling the building approach of death on the soldiers she'd already taken care of.

They had five minutes, maybe less, when everything went crazy.

First, there was the sound of a gunshot from inside one of the trailers.

Eija turned to look at Sousuke and saw he was already moving.

Watching the squad leader in charge of the detonator starting to get itchy, she couldn't hold back and moved, dropping the umisenken's cloak as she stole the detonator out of his hand and thrust her palm into his chest, sending a wave of force that damaged lungs and heart.

The two soldiers about the man raised their rifles her way but were too slow to stop her attack on their superior or the crescent kick that followed immediately afterward, taking them out of the fight.

Sousuke responded by taking out two of the heavy machine gun crews with the pistol he'd taken from Gauron earlier.

Deimosu was quick to take action as well, jumping into the distracted third machine-gun crew's midst and tearing them and their support apart. Taking the wired vest off a moment later.

The ambush squad was pouring out to the attack as Sousuke moved on the trailer, catching the detonator as Eija tossed it to him, but at the same time, a wall in the warehouse exploded inward as a large, dark-haired man moved to join the fight. Behind him another figure swarmed in, moving incredibly fast.

"Hey, Thyme," the slender one said. "That must be the dark-haired bride Basil was talking about. That's all three!"

"Good day for the Musk," the large one said.

Deimosu and Eija both turned to look at the two with a sinking feeling. Musk warriors were big on their mother's danger lists.

It turned into a brief threeway battle as the ambush, lives shortened by their activity started dropping all at once.

"Get to Naiki," Deimosu shouted. "I'll handle these."

Eija nodded and rushed to her sister, focusing her mind on healing and fixing the injuries that were threatening her sister.

Deimosu dodged aside a swipe from the large dark man, and leaned into a speeding charge by the slender speed-freak. Eija heard the crackling thunder of his inner-power striking out like lightning, but this was more or less familiar to her.

The sweat came out of her as if she was a towel being wrung out, but the internal damage faded away and, Naiki started to wake up.

"Whaz..." Naiki wearily as she started to come to.

"Fight," Eija said gasping as she tried to recover from the effort of healing. "Musk."

"Musk?" Naiki said confused before it came to her and she sat up to look at her brother competing with the two warriors coming in and getting the overall worst of it. "MUSK!"

She started to move forward to help and collapsed to the floor, or would have if Eija hadn't caught her.

"Not yet," Eija said, helping her sister to her feet and tossing the explosive vest aside. She started moving for the escape route Sousuke had determined earlier.

As she did so, Sousuke came out of the trailer behind them.

"Miss Chidori, help them," he said shouted moving forward to grab one of the personal assault weapons the guard squad had had.

Deimosu fell back, forcing a space between the two Musk and himself with a blast of electrical power and giving himself a chance to catch his breath. In doing so he gave Sousuke an opening.

Automatic fire hedged the speedy flame-haired slender one away, letting Deimosu focus his attention on the huge one. Thyme out massed and out-strengthed Deimosu, but couldn't compete in speed or skill with the young demigod.

A swift exchange and the brute was tossed aside and dazed long enough for Deimosu and Sousuke to backaway from the fight and catch up to the girls.

Which was when the ceiling blew inward to reveal an angry looking pink-haired young-man floating downward.

"I claim these females for the Musk Dynasty," he said imperiously, hovering over the space that the Satomis had been held earlier.

Around them, the other two Musk, mostly undamaged started to come to his side on the ground. Which was littered with two explosive wired vests.

"I'm afraid I can't comply," Sousuke said, setting his weapon aside and rising the detonator switch in his hand.

Basil looked confused as to why the outsider would drop the powerful gun, dangerous even to him if he weren't careful, and instead raise what looked to be one of the radios these outsiders talked through.

Then the world flashed brilliantly white and he was thrown backward into a truck.

When vision came back a few seconds later and he was looking to see the incredibly resilient Thyme shake free of the impact and the speedy Bay leaning against the wall and catching his breath. All the outsiders had vanished.

Growling in rage he limped the first few feet out into the middle of the warehouse before recovering himself and starting to consider rising into the air.

Which was when more of these monkey-ish outsiders came pouring in with more firearms and the three Musk had something to occupy themselves with before hunting their prize.

****

"Sousuke, what the hell do you think you are doing?" Kaname demanded as the five of them snuck away from the fire fight.

"I'm afraid our original plan has been scuttled by that third party," Sousuke said. "But they should still cause enough confusion and distraction for us to get somewhere secure to wait for reinforcements."

"Why don't we just get out of here?" Deimosu said, pointing outside the complex.

"In a moment," Sousuke said. "But we need time to catch our breath and re-equip. If possible we'll need to contact my superiors."

"Your superiors," Kaname said from where she was helping Naiki walk along. "What do you mean your superiors? Hayashimizu?! What's he going to say? 'The terrorists wouldn't dare impinge on the autonomy of the students'?"

"No, I do not believe his excellency has anything to do with this situation," Sousuke said. "Now please keep your voice down until we get to that hangar."

"S...souskue!" Kaname snapped. "This isn't a video game. This is the real thing!"

The young man turned around to catch her eye firmly.

"Miss Chidori, I will protect you," he said. "That is my duty."

Kaname felt herself blushing as he said that, and she couldn't continue to voice out her anger at the young man.

"I still say we should just roof-hop out of here," Deimosu said. "Leave the Musk behind and let soldier-boy's friends save everybody else since they're coming."

"Mother said to follow Sousuke's lead in this," Eija said quietly, still breathing heavily. "When we get to the hangar, I'll heal Naiki a little more."

"Can you handle another spell like that?" Deimosu asked.

"I'll be fine," Eija said as they reached the hangar.

"Hide in the back," Sousuke said eyeing the savage in the hangar. "Deimosu, keep a watch for any incoming."

"I still think this is a mistake," Deimosu muttered.

"What are you going to do?" Kaname asked, wondering about the tall robotic fighter in front of her.

"I'm re-equipping," Sousuke said as he moved to the ladder and started to climb up it.

"Look, cut it out," Kaname said. "I'll admit your good. But even if you've spent hours on the paintball range and simulators, that doesn't mean you can pilot an arm slave against real soldiers. An amateur can't control one of those."

"Amateur?" Sousuke said, coming to the top of the arm slave. "I'm no amateur, I'm a specialist."

****

The sound of battle outside was spreading across the base, much more than could be accounted for by just the three Musk warriors.

Kaname had moved to the back of the hangar with Naiki and Eija after Sousuke opened the cockpit of the AS and got inside, rather easily much to her surprise.

Naiki looked much better, the bruises and cuts on her arms miraculously healed to a level that looked like she'd taken a rough fall.

Eija on the other hand, was lying on her back with a grey pallor and breathing heavily as she recovered from what whatever it was she had down to help her sister.

"So, what was with that guy back there?" Kaname asked. "The one that was flying?"

"He's a Musk Prince," Naiki said. "They're a tribe from China somewhere near some magic springs. Mother told us all about them and told us to be very careful around them and to fight all out if one even hinted at attacking us."

"Why?" Kaname asked.

"They kidnap strong female martial artists and female psychics to strengthen their bloodlines," Eija whispered.

"We're breeding material," Naiki confirmed, pointing to all three of them.

"What, but I'm not anything like a psychic!" Kaname protested, not mentioning what that scientist had said about "Whispered".

"Something's coming," Deimosu shouted. "Something big!"

In his cockpit Sousuke growled at the soviet piece of junk, waiting for it to boot up so he could move.

From his position, Deimosu unleashed a chi blast followed by an electrical discharge as the approaching savage trained a cannon towards his position. The impact staggered the AS, but didn't seriously damage it.

Cannon fire blew through the wall just over Deimosu dodging down and rolling to standing. In the back, Eija was getting to her feet much slower than either Kaname or Naiki.

Naiki rushed in and ripped her arms out at the savage, watching as her vacuum blade sliced into the thing's chest armor, but found nothing vital.

The cannon aimed toward her as she threw more vacuum blades instead of dodging aside, chipping away at the armor, but failing to aim or hit something specific.

Before the cannon could fire again another robot rushed in and shoved the attacker away, grabbing its hand cannon away. A movement later and the cannon blew a sizeable hole in the enemy savage.

Kaname could only watch as a second savage appeared and was destroyed before it could even register Sousuke's savage.

"Let's go," Sousuke called out over the comms.

The robot kneeled down and lowered a hand for the others to climb on.

"Let's get out of here," Sousuke shouted. "No time to talk!"

"We can keep up," Deimosu said. "Even carrying Eija."

"I can move," she said.

"Negative," Sousuke said noting that Naiki's and Eija's health status had almost reversed. True the dark-haired girl wasn't at risk of death, from what he could tell, but she was exhuasted.

"Your brother carries you! We go now, reinforcements are already heading here," Sousuke continued.

Then they were rushing out of the hangar, Naiki bringing up the rear and lashing out with a storm of vacuum blades to tear through the approaching tanks, which lacked the futurisitc alloys that made up the AS bodies.

Then she followed after.

****

Ranma sat in one of the helicopters sitting scross and among the Mithril strike force.

Mithril.

It was hard to do anything in the shadows without hearing about that group, and here she was working for them.

This wasn't her normal beat, but she'd been close to this sort of work once or twice before.

The red head'd done something similar while she was still living in Greece, when she was still establishing herself and earning money...and the understanding to use it properly.

A quick rescue and raze of a KGB psychic research facility.

She'd only been one of a team on that one.

Twenty-three, still bitter. She'd probably still be controlled by that bitterness except for the combination of her children, who she didn't believe deserved punishment, and the repeated "thank yous" from the jobs she'd taken.

Most of that team had been mercenaries just like this one, with herself the token "sensitive" to help finding the objectives. They'd been surprised that she could handle herself.

"So, you're psychic?" the lieutenant across from her asked.

"Hmm, not really," she said. "But close enough."

"And your kids are down there," the other added.

"Yep," Ranma said, realizing where the man was going with this.

"Don't go Akira and threaten the mission on us, got it?" the man said.

"Minimal effort, maximum impact," Ranma said. "I'm supporting you."

"I heard we're covering you," the lieutenant said with a smirk. "Need a gun?"

"Not a good idea," Ranma said shaking her head. "I haven't trained in gunfire. Last time I tried, I almost got myself killed playing gunslinger."

"We're not going to be getting in hand to hand range if we can avoid it," the lieutenant warned.

"Trust me, I can cope," Ranma said with a smile.

****

The helicopters came in amidst gunfire, though most of that was drawn by the M-9s that had landed ahead of them.

Ranma disembarked and immediately moved for cover with the rest of the team she was with.

She could dodge pistol fire, and didn't worry much about a stray bullet striking her, given the bakusai tenketsu, even her reverse-engineered version of the body hardening, but there was no reason to invite gunfire.

Small injuries and pains were still injuries and pains. It was like walking onto broken glass with bare feet.

The team moved forward cover to cover, firing to cover the next person. Soon enough her turn to move came and, as she came to the next piece of cover she lashed her hands outward.

A whirling vacuum blade left her hand and slashed easily through the barrels and crates covering the soldiers behind them. In fact it slashed through some of the soldiers behind.

The lieutenant came up next behind her and smirked at her as he passed.

"I see what you mean now," he said.

The rescue squad worked their way through as the main assault worked to subdue the base and establish a perimeter to get the hostages out.

Ahead of the main fighting lines, where M-9s were securing the runway, Ranma and the rescuers were spearheading the path to the hostages for the demolitions crew and pilots. Turning a corner when they found a savage in firing position.

"Think you can take out an AS?" the lieutenant asked her.

"Give me three, five minutes," Ranma said peeking around the corner. "Maybe. Big maybe."

"How about just disable?" the man asked.

"I think that'll take less time," Ranma said.

"All right, I wan...the hell!?" the lieutenant gasped as the savage around the corner was engulfed in power and energy.

As the attack faded, the savage appeared visibly dented from several directions, some vital components sparking outward. Disabled but not destroyed.

"Ryu Sei Hisho," Ranma said narrowly as she saw the end result of the attack. "Too weak to be Herb unless he's been sitting on his ass eating potato chips for sixteen years."

"What's that?" the lieutenant asked. "One of your kids going crazy?"

"No," Ranma said. "There's a third party involved. He has to be able to fly to pull that move off, so watch up. There are probably more on the ground, dressed as ancient warriors."

The lieutenant nodded and gestured for the team to move past the now safe corner, eyes upward.

They were moving further in when a pink-haired figure carrying a chi sword swung around a further corner, hanging twenty feet off the ground, and turned to face them. A sneer covered his face as he unleashed a blast of chi towards them in the form of a scything line of chi.

Ranma immediately leaped forward and lashed outward with her arms, sending two vacuum blades to disrupt the chi blade.

"I've got this Musk brat," Ranma said to the men behind her. "Keep going, I'll catch up."

"Watch yourself, Ma'am," the lieutenant said as the rescue squad moved past her.

"Woman," the young-man said. "Don't presume to get in my way. If you know who we are, then you know we are not to be stopped. I am Basil, son of Herb, Prince of the Musk!"

Ranma responded by charging down the alley way between the warehouses toward where Basil was hovering. The young dragon prince unleashed chi blades and chi blasts growling bitterly as Ranma dodged them aside easily.

As the swift red-head, with speed probably surpassing Bay's, approached closer, the surprised young man dived downward with a series of chi-balls he hurled down to the location Ranma would reach.

Ranma grimaced as he recognized the Ryu Sei Hisho coming and wondered if her theorized counter would work. As the chi blasts struck the ground and started to bounce into her, she was already whirling into the dance.

"Kijin Gun-Dai Ranbu!" Ranma shouted as vacuum blades lashed out in all directions, obliterating the buildings on either side of the red-headed martial artist and disrupting the chi bombs that had been about to smash her into unconsciousness.

Basil stared in shock as the unbeatable move of the dragon princes was so thoroughly demolished.

"Saidaikyû Kijin Raishû Dan!" Ranma shouted launching a salvo of vacuum blades upwards at the prince.

Basil barely dodged aside dipping low as the fatal projectiles passed inches in front of his face.

Concentrated as he was on the projectiles, he failed to note the martial artist leaping to the highest point of the ruined structures around her and then upward again.

As the vacuum blades vanished harmlessly into the sky, he looked down and in front for Ranma as the peak of her second leap came in above and behind the young Musk.

In the rain, he failed to note Ranma's presence until the woman slammed into him from above, a kachuu tenshin amaguriken fist striking repetively into his shoulder until he felt it crack multiple times in multiple spots.

They landed with Ranma in control, her feet striking the ground as she slammed Basil into the ground first and then a piece of debris.

She couldn't hold back against the Musk, she knew from experience that the dragon princes had to be overwhelmed with skill and tactics and not allowed to bring their inhuman chi levels to the fight.

Basil for his place barely had time to recover from the surprise mid-air assault as he slammed physically again and again, something his father had assured him no outsider could possibly do. He was cognizant enough to know that his attacker was actually avoiding the most vital locations and instead focusing on causing pain and bruises.

And finally, the brutality stopped and he was facing the female's face that had so thoroughly humiliated him.

"Your Herb's son I'm guessing," Ranma said darkly. "He and I have an understanding, and that's the only reason I'm letting you live, Musk. If I find one of you Musk bastards has even touched one of my daughters, you're going to wish I'd killed you here."

Bleary but conscious, Basil slashed out clumsily with a chi sword, forcing Ranma backwards and giving him more than enough room to unleash a blast of chi that the martial artist was hard pressed to dissipate at such short range.

She just managed the Kijin Raishu Dan to create two vacuum blades across his position, affording her a small safe place in the powerful chi blast.

When it faded away, Basil was a speck in the sky.

Ranma sneered at the retreating form, Herb would never have run like that.

****

AN: I figure Naiki and Deimosu have the potential but not the experience or skill to take an AS with their powers. Sousuke in an AS would be quicker even when they get powerful enough. None of them can do anything to Gauron+Lambda Driver.

I think Ranma is going to be able to attack the joints with vacuum blades or something similar, but might take two or three minutes and would have a lot harder time with a skilled opponent.

Also, I've decided, in retrospect, that Ranma's overall power level (chi at least) is less than Herb and loads less than Saffron. She's definitely got a lot less potential than her children do as well (being demigods they're potentially up there as well). However, she's got skill, tactics and adaptability. In this case, she knew all the Musk tricks already and didn't even try a hiryu shoten ha, even with the hiryu korin dan. At this point, Basil probably has multiple hairline fractures across his body so that he's in lots of pain and in a vulnerable state, but not beyond his ability to recover via chi healing.

Vacuum blades versus chi blasts. Chi is based on the reaction of all things in the world. The vacuum blades are a small area of nothing. When the chi blast meets the vacuum blade, the fraction of nothingness causes it to fracture and dissipate.

Also, I figure that Eija can heal via chi-healing which is more like professional medical treatment in effect, not an instant heal. Or she can do a miraculous style healing, but that takes a lot out of her, as is apparent.

also, Sousuke's willingness to accept they can keep up, by this time, Eija's told him how fast they can travel (as per mother's instructions)

Also, the Musk resilience to gunfire being less than Naiki's

Bakusei Tenketsu is a very powerful body hardening technique...

by comparison, the Musk tough-guys are mostly born that way, so while still tougher than base human and able to survive small arms fire, it isn't something they can ignore.

Comment of who's attack Ranma first witnessed edited to fit Ranma's personality


	6. Escape

Kaname was finding it hard to hold on to her preconceptions in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Terrorists

Whispered.

Musk.

Specialists.

Flying men shooting fireballs.

Her world had just turned upside down around her, and one thing was certainly bothering her.

Why hadn't Sousuke mentioned any of this?

Why hadn't he told her?

Her mind wandered back a few days to a roof-top discussion.

"I'm under orders to tighten security...you are in danger of being abducted by a certain organization...Mithril has dispatched one of its soldiers."

Kaname smacked a hand to her face.

He had told her, it had just seemed too fantastic to believe.

Of course that hadn't explained the Satomis. She looked off to the side and watched as Deimosu and Naiki kept pace with a frigging AS unit leaping from tree to tree.

And that with the blonde young man carrying Eija.

The girl looked more than a little out of sorts. She remembered the sensation she felt in the hangar as Eija healed her sister. That same world gone negative sensation accompanied by whispers that weren't as inaudible as they used to be.

She wanted to keep saying she wasn't a psychic or anything like that, but she had thoughts running around in her head that felt like knowledge even though she had no idea where she knew it from.

In any case, they were just caught up in the same thing she was.

They weren't really the main part of her problem.

Sousuke was.

And it was a problem she couldn't as easily work into focus as psychic powers.

Kaname was just starting to come to grips with the fact that the world wasn't anything like what she thought when she saw a swirling object heading in towards them just moments before it exploded under fire from Sousuke's robot.

****

"Musk?" Tessa asked.

"A third party," Kalinin said. "Our guest identified them as a primitive tribe with a tradition of snatching women of power to enhance their bloodlines. She marks them as very dangerous."

"How did they know the girls would be here?" Tessa asked.

"That is unknown," Kalinin said. "The hostages are secured and the bomb is detonated. Unfortunately, we have not recovered Sergeant Sagara, Kaname Chidori or the Satomi children. Reports indicate that Sergeant Sagara and Eija Satomi may have secured the escape on their own when the Musk interfered."

"Keep searching, but our primary task has to be the safety of the collected hostages," Tessa said. "We've reports on enemy reinforcements coming in so we don't have long to stay."

Quietly to herself, she prayed for everyone to come back safely.

****

Kaname found herself flying through the air as the savage was rocked backward by the explosion. Naiki Satomi caught her before she could have a hard landing, behind her she could almost hear Sousuke calling out her name, even through the robot's cockpit.

She actually knew it somehow.

Even as Naiki brought her safely to the ground, Sousuke's AS was riddled with fire and Kaname watched in horror as the savage fell back and its body and cockpit were torn open by the cannon fire.

She heard herself calling out his name now, as if watching it on TV or hearing it on an intercom.

Deimosu said something to her and handed off Eija as he moved forward with his sister and the two of them tried use their funky superpowers on the attacking robot only to have some sort of field spring up around the thing, rendering their attacks useless.

"You have interesting friends, Kashim," a voice said.

It was the same voice that had been speaking over the airline intercom earlier. The same man that she had briefly seen before being taken to that lab.

"Why the hell are you still alive?" Sousuke asked from his exposed place in the cockpit.

"Well, it seems I have titanium plate in my skull from a previous injury," the manic voice said, pointing to his skull.

Besides her Eija started to sit up and form up her hands to do something.

Instinctively, Kaname reached out to grab the girl's hands.

"Stop it, without a link you need more time to recover from high end magic," Kaname ordered, wondering just what the hell she meant by that.

"But, I need to do something," Eija said insistently.

Above them the AS's lunatic pilot was gloating over his knowledge of the Whispereds and Sousuke's lack of understanding.

"I would have liked to see more of what you two were capable of as well," Gauron was saying. "But it appears that I'll have to be satisfied with just your sister."

The cannon raised and was subsequently destroyed by an attack from above.

"Yahoo!" shouted the speakers of the incoming M-9 AS. "Urzu-6 on the ground. I've located Urzu-7, Angel and friends, engaging hostile mech. Sousuke, can you get out?"

"I'm good to go," Sousuke said, climbing out of the cockpit and moving toward Kaname.

"Okay, you five minutes to get to the air-field!" Kurz said. "Go!"

"Watch that AS! He's got some sort of..." Sousuke was uncertain how to describe it. "...force field."

"Think who're talking to," Kurz said. "I got him once, I'll get him again."

"Is that the blonde guy from the other day?" Kaname demanded as Souske came to her side, holding a hand to his waist for some reason.

Kaname moved to his side to help support him as Deimosu started to pick up Eija again.

"Let's go," Sousuke said.

They were yards away before they noticed that Naiki wasn't with them.

****

Kurz watched as the strange AS dodged his fire and vanish into the bush around him. His opponent had an ECS camouflage system and good evasion capabilities, but he was also down to his melee back-up, so Kurz had the advantage.

As long as he paid attention

He prepared his weapon and waited for the attack.

"There!" he shouted aiming towards the flash of movement heading his way.

To his surprise the ground below him started shaking momentarily setting off his aim as a crack spread outward from between his legs straight for the approaching enemy AS, widening until it was big enough for the attacker's foot to jam inside and hold, stopping the charge.

"The hell?" Kurz muttered. "Convenient time for an earthquake."

In any case, turkey shoot time, he thought as he smirked and took aim at his opponent struggling against the grip of the Earth around him.

The round launched outward and impacted hard against a spherical flash of light that stopped it dead and dug a channel several meters ahead of it.

"Damn," Kurz said. "Any closer and my M-9 was trash. Time to get out of here. This is Urzu-6, enemy AS unknown type with unknown defensive system immobilized at my position. Fire ineffective, am heading toward pick-up. Urzu-7 and guests should be on the way to you already."

He started to turn about to leave when he heard something over the intercom.

"Mind if I hitch a ride?" a girl's voice asked from nearby.

Twisting the external cameras he found the green-haired Satomi daughter catching her breath on his unit's shoulder.

"Sure, pretty lady," he said, not asking how she got up there. "Hold on."

The M-9 sped away from the site leaving the venom behind, foot stuck in the ground for several minutes before it managed to rip it free.

The unit limped away, a frown on its pilot's face as he stared at the overheat warnings flashing in front of him. A few more minutes of operation and he'd be able to catch up with and destroy that M-9.

The only thing he got out of this was footage of the Satomi girl somehow initiating the cracked earth that trapped him just too long.

****

"We have to go back!" Deimosu said. "She's going to try to help in that fight."

"We don't have time," Sousuke said. "The transport leaves too soon."

"You're just going to leave her back there?" Deimosu said, growling as he came up to Sousuke's face.

"No, you are taking your sister and Miss Chidori to the air-field," he said. "I'll go back to see that she's safe."

"Sousuke, you're unarmed and...wounded," Kaname said. "You can't be expected to be res..."

"I am expected to be responsible," Sousuke said. "The rest of you are civilians. And only one of you can be expected to fight currently. And I'm not unarmed."

He drew a pistol and started to turn around with a resigned look at Kaname.

"Look out!" Eija called out.

Sousuke caught the incoming attack out of the corner of his eye and barely dodged out of the way as a large meaty fist swung in at him.

A flash of movement came in from the other direction which Deimosu just barely moved to intercept.

"Go! Go!" Souske shouted at the girls as he rolled aside again and Thyme's large fist crated the ground under where he'd been standing.

Reluctantly, Kaname started to pull Eija aside to run for the base but stopped cold as the flying freak from earlier came floating down in their path.

"Okay! Not this way," Kaname said, running at a bee-line away from the dangerous fighter.

"I didn't come out to these barbarous lands to be denied," Basil shouted, ignoring the pain of his injuries from that battle with that red-headed woman earlier.

Sousuke fired his pistol at the base of Thyme's skull as the giant missed him again, marveling as that managed to do little more than stun the big man.

Still it was all he needed.

Rolling aside he moved himself between the girls and Basil, his gun flashing out forward.

The dragon prince's eyes widened as he tried to force his battered skeleton and muscles to move at customary speeds and dodge aside of the bullets.

Even so, he felt impacts in his shoulder and body as he swept up into the air.

Rage burning in his eyes, the dragon unleashed a long burst of chi downward, igniting the dry grasses into a catching flame. As he did so, the battered and injured dragon prince lowered himself to the ground to catch his breath.

"Prince Basil!" Bay shouted as he zipped around Deimosu to help his master.

"Subdue the warrior!" Basil snapped angrily, standing up and holding his shoulder.

Sousuke grimaced as he and the two girls were forced back away from the flames, further away from the base. There wasn't much chance of them reaching the base in time now.

Eija looked towards her brother as Kaname held her hand and, despite the warning earlier, she quietly intoned a quiet prayer of protection and blessing.

Kaname felt it happening almost instantly, but couldn't do much more than catch Eija as she passed out.

Sousuke was quickly with Kaname and taking Eija before grabbing Kaname's hand and running from the growing flames as quickly as possible.

Behind them, Deimosu and the Musk were similarly pushed back from the flames scattering the lot of the fighters in several directions.

The blonde Satomi could have leaped over the flames if it wasn't for the Musk in his way, attacking him and pushing him away from the flames.

He recognized the nimbus of darkness that appeared to shroud his form whenever they attacked him, Eija had cast it on him or Naiki in the past.

However, given the amount of magic she'd been casting all day, including healing Naiki, she had to be tired. And he couldn't be with her to protect her. She was with that soldier who, skilled as he was, was running out of ammo and equipment.

That worry turned to angry as he watched Basil simply moving off and watching as his henchmen did the fighting. The man couldn't even be bothered to try and get in the fight? He was just going to watch?

It was several minutes of backing away from fight and flame before the Musk scattered at the approach of an M-9. As the Musk scattered, his other sister's form dropped down to his side and looked around.

"Where's everybody else?" she asked, flinching at Deimosu's angry glare.

"Hey," Kurz called out. "No time for reunions, I need to at least get you two safe."

****

"Urzu-6 has returned with two of the Satomi children on the transport helicopter," Kalinin said. "Apparently Sergeant Sagara, Kaname Chidori and the third Satomi were driven off by the flames west of the base when these Musk attacked."

"How about their mother?" Tessa asked.

"Returning with one of the tactical teams," Kalinin said.

Tessa was silent for a long time.

"Unfortunately, we can't stay any longer, armored patrol ships are on their way," Tessa said. "However, we'll have a second opportunity, what might we be able to do if we surfaced here for a few minutes at dawn?"

****

The fighting ended and the pursuit not yet begun, Sousuke found himself moving a bit slower. Especially as he was carrying Eija Satomi at the moment.

"Is it okay?" Kaname asked hesitantly.

"We're still not safe here, but staying there was impossible," Sousuke answered.

"No, I mean your injury," the blue-haired girl asked, she was still wearing the jacket Sousuke had given her when they came out of the trailer. "Doesn't it hurt?"

"Yeah, hold on just a second," the mercenary said moving to a tree and gently laying Eija down. "Miss Chidori, hand me the little packet...in the jacket pocket."

"You mean this first-aid kit looking thing?" Kaname asked. "Hold on, let me do it."

Her resolve faded as she saw the size of the piece of shrapnel stuck in Sousuke's stomach.

"I'm lucky," he said. "It doesn't look too serious."

"But," Kaname said.

"I know."

There was an emphasis to that statement that showed an intensity of purpose that Kaname hadn't seen in anyone before.

Except perhaps the spiky haired lunatic that she had seen before.

"We have to move on."

He rose up in front of her like a bloody specter and held his hand out toward her.

"Hand me the smelling salts."

Perhaps because of the fact that she hadn't really taken in the inhuman abilities of the other people she'd encountered.

Perhaps because despite those abilities they seemed, for all she could tell, basically normal kids.

Perhaps because Sousuke had been keeping up with, even directing those super-powered kids without any special ability of his own that she could see.

Perhaps because looking at him now reminded her most of that man, Gauron that had been running the kidnapping.

But at the moment Sousuke was the scariest thing she could think of.

"Don't! Don't come near me!" she snapped and immediately wished she could take it back.

In the instant she said it, Sousuke had looked so devoid of hope.

"I guess I understand," the other teen said. "People like you have a hard time trusting people like me. But be patient for now. All I care about right now is getting you and Miss Satomi back to Japan safely. You'll never see me after that, so...for now...just trust me."

The intensity didn't fade, but it seemed redirected. As if he was afraid of hurting her by thinking too hard. A sort of gentleness that he wasn't aware of, perhaps wasn't able to express physically, and was all the more poignant because he was standing and bleeding while trying to keep from hurting her.

And the pain wasn't just physical, she could see it in the eyes that turned down and looked like they wanted to tear up but didn't know how.

She'd hurt him with her comment.

She thought back to all the times he'd acted in ways that had seemed quirky or even down right insane.

And she realized.

This is what he'd meant by protecting her. Taking all the pain intended for her onto himself.

"How could I tell him not to come near me?" she thought to herself.

Almost mechanically, she reached into the packet and handed over the smelling salts and bent to check Eija's vitals before holding the smelling salts under her nose.

Eija blinked awake and looked around.

"Where are we?" she asked wearily.

"We've come about three miles away from the base," Sousuke said. "You've been out for about an hour."

"That's about twenty minutes a mile. I slowed you down," Eija commented starting to get to her feet, getting help from Kaname and Sousuke as she did so. "I'm sorry."

"No need," Sousuke said. "But we aren't safe here, are you okay to travel on your own."

"I should be," Eija said.

"Good, but you are a non-combatant from this point," Sousuke insisted. "Your abilities have worn you out too thoroughly."

"Hai," the dark-haired woman said. "I...suppose I should stop suppressing my sight as well."

"If it tires you, yes," Sousuke said.

"We...we'll be fine," Kaname assured Eija quietly.

Eija took the tone to be gentleness as the blue-haired girl let her lean on her shoulder. Most people couldn't bare to touch her when the red of her eyes flooded into the white like she was letting them do now.

"Your abilities seem to come with a heavy price," Sousuke said.

"Not all of them. Just the magic," Eija explained wearily. "My brother and sister rarely use it for that reason. Naiki knows a few elemental spells, mostly water and earth. Deimosu knows parlor tricks, really."

"Weren't they casting spells or something back there?" Kaname asked.

"No, Naiki was using the Kijin Raiju Dan," Eija said. "And Deimosu was using the Moko Takabisha. Both are advanced martial art techniques requiring chi manipulation in different ways. My brother is also electrokinetic, which is a psionic affinity. All tiring, yes, like heavy exercise, but not like magic."

"Is there a reason for it?" Sousuke asked.

"One of our teachers told us we're cursed," the girl explained quietly. "It's like someone hid us from the universe and we have to shout with all our might to get it to hear us. Okaasan is the same way, but I think she...disliked magic before she knew that."

Eija continued to think about chi and magic while Kaname was thinking about anti-virus programming for some reason she wasn't sure of.

She supposed it was easy for the layfolk to mix up things like feng shui and chi blasts for true magic. Both dealt mostly with chi. Magic was different somehow, like having your hand on the codes to reality itself.

It could do things chi couldn't...

...and she had to admit it was addicting.

"If you're so cut off from it," Kaname said. "Why learn it?"

"I asked her once," Eija said. "She just said we had to be prepared. I...think, sometimes, it might be about our father."

There was a vast uncomfortable silence behind that statement and it seemed obvious to Kaname that the girl didn't particularly like to think about it.

Eija frowned for a moment as she felt herself fading again when she thought back to earlier when she had been considering tools.

Sousuke looked down at Eija, now being carried again between him and Kaname, and realized that her feet were moving almost on automation. He was just deciding to let her sit and rest again as they broke out of the trees to the edge of wide plain leading off toward the horizon.

"Wow," Kaname said.

"It looks like we can't go any further on foot," Sousuke said. "Let's sit down for now."

They laid Eija down first and then Kaname sat down herself.

Sousuke remained quiet as Kaname looked over Eija and rested herself before he finally spoke up.

"Miss Chidori," he said.

"What?" Kaname asked.

She noticed his eyes were closed and there was a quietness about him that seemed worrying.

"We're not in a good situation," Sousuke said. "It's impossible to cross the field with me wounded and Miss Satomi so exhausted. My comm unit has a limited range and the enemy will be closing in on this position as we speak. If we stay here, they'll eventually catch us. Or the fire will move this way and catch us, either way is no good."

"So, I'll stay here as a bait," he said. "And I want you to carry Miss Satomi west and take the comm device with you."

"What?!" Kaname snapped.

"You should be able to contact my comrades by the beach if they're in that area," he continued.

"So, what you're saying is that you are..."

"Don't worry about us," he instructed emphatically. "We're here to protect you. This is the only way you can survive. Now go!"

"...no," Kaname said.

"What?" Sousuke said, uncomprehending of the response.

"I'm not going to leave you here," she said.

"Miss Chidori!" Sousuke responded. "I'm the specialist here. I've considered the situation and this is the only way."

"'The only way!?'" the high school student quoted. "Is that really what you think?"

Sousuke stared at her eyes wide as she took a deep breath and then unloaded.

"Don't tell me you're a specialist! You are just a weapons freak. It's clear as day!! So you're ready to die for me? Spare me the ego trip! How do you think I'd 'survive' knowing the 'only way' you could save me was to sacrifice your own life?! Is your life worth so little? You have to live...you have to want to live. We'll find a way! I'm not going to give up so easily! All three of us are going home alive, okay!!"

"Miss Chidori," Sousuke said, trying to reason with her. "I understand that, but your will isn't enough to change the current situation. So at least you..."

"I said no!!"

The next thing Kaname knew there was a gun pointed at her.

"So, you're gonna shoot me if I don't go?"

"That's correct."

They stared at each other, eyes and faces seeming calm across the small gap until Kanama reached out and moved forward into Sousuke's body.

"I'm not scared," she said. "Because...I believe in you now."

The look on Sousuke's face was shell-shocked as his gun dropped from his hand.

"I was so scared of you a minute ago...because you were acting like a stranger to me, but...when you told me to trust you, I felt I had to pull together and help you as much as I could. I can't lose sight of that now. So we're going to keep fighting...as long as we're still alive!! We're going home together!!"

The shocked expression in Sousuke's face seemed to fade a little, being replaced by one of realization and consideration.

"I really hate to interrupt this shoujo moment," Eija said, sending a surprised shiver through Kaname and Sousuke who turned slowly around to look at each other. "I mean, I can tell you two are in your own world right now, considering I think you forgot to include me in statements a couple of times..."

"This is not what you think it is!" Kaname sputtered. "I was just..."

"Kaname you want to stop there," Eija said quickly, glancing toward Sousuke's confused face. "But...I might have an idea."

She reached in her pocket and pulled out her scroll.

"We've already established that you can't cast anything in your current state," Sousuke said.

"True," Eija said. "But I think should remember using this on the plane."

"Your brother prepared the message," Sousuke said. "All I did was visualize Sergeant Major Mao and blow on the paper."

In truth, he hadn't even been sure that the message had worked until he'd contacted mithril later and heard that the Sergeant Major had gotten the information in fact.

"It's a tool," Eija said. "We prepare these ahead of time, the magic is already in them."

"If that is true can't you send the message?" Kaname asked.

"But I don't know if Okaasan or my brother and sister are with Sousuke's comrades and I don't think either of us knows many of his companions very well," Eija said. "The only one of us who can strongly visualize someone that would be for sure able to help us is Sousuke."

The mercenary frowned and looked up at the stars briefly now that the clouds were parting.

"Okay, if you'll prepare it, I'll send it," Sousuke said.

****

Commander Andrei Kalinin had no doubt that Sousuke Sagara was alive. He'd worked with the young man for years. He'd been on the spetsnaz team that found the boy in the wreckage of a crashed airliner in Russia thirteen years ago in an unofficial and unauthorized rescue operation in the Bering Straits.

He'd later met Sousuke again, as an enemy captive using the name Kashim, in Helmajistan, acting as the adoptive son of a renowned guerilla fighter. Apparently the orphan he'd rescued had been put into a KGB program for training child assassins

That reunion had led to Kalinin's desertion from the Soviet Army, in the middle of the second invasion of the middle east.

He was the one that had given Sousuke his spetsnaz training, on top of the KGB assassination school and the Islamic guerilla fighters' training in survival and guerilla warfare.

And then he'd recruited Sousuke into Mithril and away from the life as a roving soldier of fortune.

The boy hadn't quite grown up yet, he was still a bit too dependent on receiving and obeying orders, but he was developing a personality beyond just the war machine that Kalinin's home country and forged the boy into.

As cold as Kalinin behaved in front of his subordinates and others, he would still be damned if he was going to give up on Sagara without a fight.

He was similar to his commanding officer in that regard. Captain Testarossa would keep her cool in front of the troops, but she was just as determined to get back all three of the lost ones. She was an idealist of the most dangerous type, one that recognized the practical concerns that others would use as reasons not to attempt something, but found ways to work around them.

The problem was that knowing Sagara was alive and knowing where he was were two different things.

Until then a workable rescue operation was mostly theoretical, and they had very little time before they had to make it practical.

He was considering the problem when he noticed the butterfly fluttering into his tactical room in idle spirals towards him. He remembered Sergeant Major Mao's report on the message she'd received in Tokyo and, as the butterfly landed and unfolded into a message with coordinates and sit-rep, he was now witnessing it.

Assuming the information was accurate, he now had what he needed to make his theoretical plan practical.

He wasted no time in finding the bridge and Tessa, handing over the message to the white-haired teen prodigy.

"I'm authorizing the use of the Arbalest," Tessa said without hesitation. "Prepare for launch."

****

"The repairs to the Chodarl are complete, sir," a technician told Gauron. "It is ready to go at any time."

"Good," the man said as he spotted a man in a black suit approaching him. "Any word?"

"The wild fire has shifted North and West," the man reported indicating an electronic map showing the affected areas. "Driven by the wind and it has started to spread faster since the rain stopped. No sign yet of the targets."

"He's in this area," Gauron said, pointing to a spot due west of the base. "The quickest route to the sea and south of the fire. Send your men there. I'll be going out soon."

"What, in the Chodarl?" the intelligence agent demanded.

"Of course," Gauron said. "You know what we're dealing with."

****

Basil growled as he looked down towards the AS and soldier infested forests. He couldn't continue the fight in this shape. Bay had come out pretty much unscathed save for some shock damage from that blonde outsider's electrical attacks and even Thyme was more than a little battered and bruised.

Still, he wasn't done.

Not by a longshot.

He was destined to bring the Musk back to their days of glory.

****

"Do you ever get tired of being reckless?" Deimosu demanded loudly as he yelled down at Naiki's face. "Because of you, we got split up!"

"I stayed to help out that other guy!" Naiki snapped back. "Not like you who kept saying 'let's get out of here' every few minutes!"

"You were useless on the plane," Deimosu snapped. "You got yourself captured as soon as we landed. You almost got yourself killed! Because of that you got me captured and Eija is probably still too tired to fight or be of much use out there. And then you stayed behind!"

"Aren't you a martial artist too?!" Naiki demanded.

"This isn't a challenge!" Deimosu snapped. "This was a battle. You always do this. You always treat the real battles like some rival's match or challenge! And you either get yourself or one of us beat up in the process!"

Naiki started to answer but her brother snapped again.

"There's a difference between life and death battles and battles for pride," he shouted.

It looked like he was about to say more when he was interrupted, by the sudden appearance of their mother moving in to wrap her arms around his chest quietly and then pull his head down to kiss his forehead and moved on toward Naiki to hug her again as well.

Then she pulled back.

"We'll talk about mistakes later," Ranma said. "And we'll do it without fighting."

"'Kaasan," Naiki said. "What about Eija?"

"They've got some plan running," Ranma said. "We're not part of it."

****

"Helicopters," Sousuke said pointing and listening to the sound. "They'll be dropping troops and then moving to scout for us. But they haven't pinpointed us yet."

"I see them," Eija confirmed.

"Anything we can do?" Kaname asked.

"No," Sousuke said.

"Pray and hope," Eija said. "What's that?"

Sousuke looked up toward the flash the Satomi had noted and watched as it came into closer view as an AS that landed at their position with a resounding crash.

"Okay, they probably know where we are now," Kaname noted.

Sousuke said nothing just moved quickly for the AS that had dropped in on their position.

He was quickly in the cockpit.

"It's unmanned," he said. "It looks like the system has been activated."

"Voice Identification activated," the computer said. "State your name, rank and serial number."

"Sgt Sousuke Sagara, B-3128."

"Verification completed, Sergeant Sagara confirmed," the computer responded. "Please state command."

****

Sousuke had hoped to be able to get Kaname and Eija away from the area before enemy units showed up, but the approach of five savages had nixed that plan.

It took a brief moment to eliminate all five savages, but then He had shown up, and now he was trading shots with Gauron in his silver AS.

Kaname and Eija watched from a distance.

"Who's winning?" Kaname asked.

"It looks even," Eija responded. "But I'm thinking from a martial artist's perspective, I don't know much about AS suits."

As Eija said that, Kaname started to waver by her side.

The blue-haired girl felt the world around her melt away into a swirling mass of letters and symbols. And within it all a swirl of whispers started to stream into her head.

Sousuke grimaced as his attack was stop cold by the same force field that had blocked the Satomi's attacks earlier. Only now that force was redirected back at him, sending his new mech flying backwards through the terrain.

The force on his body was intense enough to force a fraction of a second blackout, but, as he snapped out of it and waited for the report of his mecha's crippled state, he was shocked as the readouts implied little to no damage.

"Why isn't working!?" Gauron demanded. "Damn it! This is why I hate prototypes!"

Overlooking the scene, Eija was staring at Kaname as she started muttering strange terms that seemed arcane to her, trained in occult matters from early childhood.

Kaname's breath was starting to come heavy and strained, and there was a far away look in her eyes that spoke of a fierce attempt to remain in present place and time.

"I...know what's happening," Kaname said. "He...he doesn't realize yet...he has his hands full...just trying to fend off the attacks...he isn't making the switch."

Eija started to stand up, a prickling feeling working over her as she approached Kaname.

"I...I'll do it...this time," Kaname said, letting herself fall back into the sea of strange symbols and words, sure that the answer she needed was in there.

And then the world vanished entirely.

She was naked in a wash of knowledge and light streaming in from somewhere.

But the knowledge wasn't alone.

_I know, I know everything. So come closer. _

"Who is this?" Kaname asked. "Who's speaking? No...This isn't me!"

_If you want to save him, you have to dive in and touch me. _

"Stop it!" Kaname said. "Stop pulling me!"

_Give it up. Just give this body to me. That's all you need to... _

The whispering voice was interrupted as Kaname heard Eija's voice state loudly.

"Dead one! Leave her alone!"

Suddenly, Kaname wasn't alone in the field. The smaller form of Eija stood in front of her protectively. She was nude as Kaname was, but instead of her real ivory skin color, her form was as black as night with only the eyes shining red.

One of Eija's hands was reaching behind the Satomi's figure, holding Kaname protectively against her back, while the other was stretched outward, shaking slightly.

The oppressive, clawing whispers, shocked, retreated back and left Kaname and Eija alone in the flow of knowledge and words.

The blue-haired girl let shock cause her to hesitate only a fraction of a section before she returned to the task she had let herself fall into this place for. It seemed an age before she snatched the knowledge she wanted, Eija's black form keeping watch for her and shaking more visibly.

Eija was bluffing to keep that...whisper away so Kaname had free pick of the knowledge left behind, she couldn't waste time.

Then she thrust herself out and came back into the world to find Eija leaning into her chest, arms wrapped tight around her. Then, a moment later, Eija's eyes cracked open too.

"Did you get what you need?" the girl asked weakly. "Don't worry that wasn't magic, it was..."

"Necrosensitivity, I know...somehow," Kaname said not even mentioning the rather suggestive position she was in with the other girl. "Where'd the radio go?"

Eija pointed to it as she pulled herself off of Kaname and leaned heavily against a tree.

Kaname hurried to snatch the radio up and talk into the the radio.

The mercenary meanwhile stared out of his monitors at his enemy.

"My armor is still okay, but I don't know how much longer I can take this," Sousuke reasoned.

"Sousuke can you hear me?" his radio blared.

"Miss Chidori?" he asked.

"Listen very carefully!" Kaname said. "The enemy is equipped with a lambda driver! That's a driver that can channel the pilot's thoughts into physical energy!"

Eija perked up as she heard that, looking out toward the battlefield as if a machine doing something she considered the province of living beings was something she hadn't considered before.

Then her eyes widened.

"And your AS is equipped with the exact same thing!" Kaname said. "That's the reason you're still okay, Got it?! Weren't you trying to protect yourself just then? The driver transformed the image in your head into physical energy!"

"The image in my head," Sousuke responded. "But how would that..."

"Messages," Eija said. "Like the messages."

Kaname looked at her and nodded.

"It's like Eija's scroll!" Kaname said. "The same exact thing!"

They were interrupted as another wave of force came outward from the silver AS rippling out toward Sousuke.

**

"You're kidding me," Sousuke said to the two Satomis. "You want me to do what?"

"You want to hold the message in your hand cupped like this so that no light can get in," Eija said, moving very close to Sousuke to show him. "Then you bring it up and hold it here, to your mouth. You have to imagine the message becoming a butterfly and flying away, then blow your breath into your hand and fix the image of the person you wish to send the message to."

After her instruction, the girl did as she instructed and, sheer enough, as her hands pulled apart, the paper was gone. And Sousuke saw no evidence of sleight of hand.

Deimosu handed over the prepared message to Sousuke and the mercenary copied the black-haired girl's actions for a moment. Eija held close to him, whispering in a soothing voice.

"Imagine the butterfly flying free," she whispered inches away from him. "Picture it, picture it. And as you breath out picture your friend. The butterfly and your friend....the butterfly and your friend. Try it now."

He breathed out, visualizing the action as he did, and surprisingly he felt a tiny pull on his mind. For a moment, he didn't just picture Sergeant Major Mao, he actually saw her in his apartment staring down at a butterfly strangely.

Then the vision was gone.

**

The image Sousuke held this time was a bit more forceful.

A wedge driving apart the wave of force heading toward him. Cutting deeply into the chodarl's attack so that it passed harmlessly on either side of him.

"Like this," Sousuke said.

"There you go! Keep on doing what you just did! You have nothing to be afraid of!" Kaname yelled over the radio. "Come on, specialist! It's show time!"

Sousuke dived forward and grabbed the hand-gun shaped cannon he'd dropped earlier and pointed at his enemy.

"That was impressive, Kashim," Gauron shouted over his speakers. "But was it just luck? And that cannon? Don't you know your bullets and shells won't touch me?"

Sousuke firmed up, secure in his own defense with the last exchange, but uncertain yet how that would apply to countering the enemy's own lambda driver. After all, Gauron's mecha should have been equally invulnerable.

And here, a draw was the same as a loss.

"Listen Sousuke," Kaname said. "You have to have focused concentration on a goal. Now imagine this. If they capture Eija and me, they're going to poke at us, torture us and reduce us to machines and experiments. And when they're done they'll kill us. You hate that, right?"

"Yeah," Sousuke said quietly.

"You won't let that happen, will you?"

"No," Sousuke added.

"So kick his butt!"

The silver AS started charging forward, knife outward.

"Yeah!"

"Now take that image you just saw," Kaname instructed. "And turn it into fire power!"

"Now!" Sousuke and Gauron thought for a moment.

The chodarl was almost on top of Sousuke when he fired his gun.

Gauron's knife slammed forward into the invisible wall of Sousuke's lambda driver as each of the cannon pellets fired from the Arbalest's side arm took precise independent trajectories, more like guided missiles than a spray of shot pellets.

Each slashed through Gauron's own lambda field, as Gauron was mostly focused on his attack, and instantly every vital system Sousuke had identified was struck viciously.

All that was left behind was a raw mess of wreckage which Sousuke turned away from to run back towards the girls and pick them up.

They were long gone by the time they saw Gauron crawling out of the wreckage of his AS, eyes wide.

Had Kashim independently formed fields around each of the sidearm cannon's pellets? Was that even possible?

**

And far away, trapped in crystal within the ruined facility of Yamsk 11, a certain mind plumbed the extent of its future knowledge.

Next time that hybrid interferred, she'd be ready.


	7. Politics and Homecoming

"We've had repeated anomalies in the system relating to the same general area," Ere said, walking over to where Peorth was handling the paperwork end of their administrative task. "The system has it pegged as a virus."

"What are you telling me this for?" Peorth asked. "Purge it and move on."

"We've been trying," the other goddess said. "But after the automatic defenses suppress it...them we can find no trace of where it is."

"Them? Let me see the system logs in question," Peorth said frowning.

"Right, Peorth-sama," Ere said, calling up the requested information. "We've identified two at least, though one has only made a single incursion into the systems. The other is much more active, making five incursions into Yggdrasil systems and briefly infecting the file of one mortal."

Peorth frowned deeper as she took in the information and called up another screen. After a few moments of searching she found what she was looking for and displayed the recalled system log side by side with the one provided her by Ere and then she focused on a specific event.

"Does this look familiar?" Peorth asked.

"Well, it's almost exactly the same," Ere said. "Except for the lack of anti-viral activity. Is this an example of the virus before we identified it?"

"No," Peorth said. "It's an access record for a second class healing spell."

Ere blinked in surprise.

"There's no file reference link," Peorth noted. "That's why the system is mistaking it for a virus. This is a process by an orphaned file."

"What could cause that?" Ere asked.

"A few things," Peorth said. "An improperly processed demonic defector, a renegade god trying to stay out of sight, a cursed or improperly trained mortal. A few others."

"But the anti-virus defenses go into effect each time," Ere noted. "Can that be harmful?"

"Lethal," Peorth noted. "We can't deal with this without a file reference link. Speak to Kali, ask if one of her...immigrants is having magic troubles, and get me someone from security here."

"Anything else, Peorth-sama?" Ere asked.

"The mortal that was 'infected' briefly," Peorth said. "We'll need to send someone to speak with her."

"Yes, I have her file right here," Ere said, calling it up. "Oh, how lucky. She lives near the Norns."

Peorth fought the urge to growl at her subordinate.

****

Hild smiled as she read the files in front of her.

It was amazing what could be found by rooting around in the mass of Yggdrasil's operations.

Whole files wandering unlinked. People lost and forgotten by Heaven it would seem.

She moved through the four files curiously, looking for something she could use out of this discovery.

There were innumerable ways she could manipulate the discovery, but mostly in terms of indirect manipulation.

The sky-spawn was too much a danger. She could recruit him easy enough. He was arrogant enough and carried a self-righteous attitude toward anyone that hurt people he cared about. She could tell he shared the opinion of her and other demons that people who were undeserving should be punished for their sins. However, it was exactly that that she couldn't trust to take him on.

The boy would be hard to control. He might one day decide to take on his father and take the smug rapist out of the picture.

Neither Hild nor many other demons or gods would mourn the death of Zeus. Several on both sides had suffered the "pleasure" of his attentions in the past and there were a number of brothers, sisters, husbands, lovers and children that would love to see him gone.

Unfortunately, there were two things preventing the massacre the bastard deserved.

The first was that, even with a restricted license, Zeus was one of the most powerful beings in existence.

A class of his own among first class Gods.

He was prophesized to die at the hands of one of his children, but it had been tried before. No one was quite willing to make the attack on him.

At least not yet.

Then there was the doublet system.

Granted, if Hild were Kami-sama, she would have done what she could to insure that bastards like Zeus weren't part of the hostage system, but, unfortunately, the way it worked, not even her and Kami-sama knew who was part of a doublet and who wasn't. Killing Zeus quite possibly meant killing one of her own.

She'd rather not have an operative that was likely to start such a dissatisfying operation.

The mother and dark-spawn were too compassionate and protective toward others, all others. Hild respected such people and their belief in the basic goodness of a soul. However, she considered such people naive. Even this neo-woman and her daughter who were willing to kill to protect others were naive, if less so than the Gods. They mourned the fact that they had to cause those deaths, regardless of the fact that the ones they killed deserved it.

Contrary to popular belief, demons did not consider themselves evil for the most part. There were the odd demon that fit the sadistic, malevolent stereotypes, just like their were gods like Zeus in heaven, however, Demons, for the most part were marked by a particular ideology.

Happiness was finite.

And there wasn't enough for everyone.

If the person next to you was happy, then there was less happiness for you.

There had to be a regulation of who was happy and who wasn't.

Some people didn't deserve to be happy, and they had to be kept from being so. Others didn't deserve even life, much less happiness.

So they cursed the ones they felt worthless and encouraged the humans they interacted with to do likewise.

Unfortunately, those ideals would not sit well with either this mother or her youngest daughter.

But the sea-spawn.

She was reckless, eager to prove herself and protect her family. She wasn't one for holding a pointless grudge and she was just on the fencepost of agreeing with her mother on the matter of the sanctity of life...and whether all people deserved protection.

She'd make a great agent. Assuming she could be taught to be more cautious after using her recklessness to recruit her.

The only problem was that it was very, very convenient for her subordinates to stumble on a lost file before heaven did. While she couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, there seemed to be something that smelled in all of this.

Of course, the best way to pick out a trap was to walk into it knowingly.

****

Zeus turned about and looked toward the sound of clicking heels as it echoed through his home.

Striding in to his pristine cloud-specked palace, a blood-haired woman dressed in tight leathers and stilleto heeled boots. The stench of blood seemed to cling about her as she came close to the smirking bearded figure of the old god.

"Morrigan," he said turning in his desk. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"I've just had a breakthrough in a case I'm working on," Morrigan said coolly.

"What case is that?" Zeus asked, smiling.

"The disappearance of Ranma Saotome," Morrigan noted.

"Since when do the Eyes of Ra care about the comings and goings of mortals," Zeus asked.

"Since a God breaks the rules and treats them like toys," Morrigan noted. She leaned forward onto his desk and stared into his face. "Until recently we'd been looking at the Chinese and Japanese, but someone recently messed around with a Musk Prince's dreams. They obscured the nature of the dreams and their name, but they left their legacy regional markers untouched. So we know it was Greek this time."

They stared at each other, Morrigan glaring into Zeus smug face.

"And because its Greek, you think it has to be me?" Zeus asked lightly.

"The disappearance of exceptional young maidens is your specialty, isn't it?" Morrigan asked.

"Last I heard, Ranma Saotome was male," Zeus protested.

"With a jusenkyo curse," Morrigan reminded him. "One that gives him a particularly attractive appearance."

"Please," Zeus noted. "I haven't played games like that since the old days when your precious 'rules' weren't even an idea yet."

"Get over yourself, Zeus," Morrigan said. "Even that long ago most of us kept a leash on our baser instincts."

"And the smell of blood around you is certainly evidence of that," Zeus taunted.

Morrigan remained unphased.

"This isn't about that incident with your granddaughter a few centuries ago, is it?" Zeus asked.

At that Morrigan growled and slammed her hand down on the desk, shattering it under her open palm.

"I'm going to find this mortal, Zeus," Morrigan said. "And when I do, she's going to give me what I need. You'll be saying goodbye to this luxury and hello to tartarus. Forever, if I have my say. I was angry enough that these games were going on, but now that I know it was you. This is personal."

Zeus stood up and smiled into her face.

"You want me to make a move, don't you," Zeus asked. "Grab your chin like the petulant woman you are and silence you with a kiss so that you can scream to your mortal-lover's clubhouse that I attacked you. This little threat and trick of yours is as transparent as your breath."

"I'm Morrigan, I don't bluff or threaten," she said firmly. "I promise."

And with that, she turned around and walked out the way she came.

****

Hecate smirked.

Everything was moving into place perfectly.

She was going to have to hide herself soon, but by then her part would be finished.

And Heaven and Hell would be a closer step to being back what they were supposed to be.

****

Merida Island was a crescent shaped island in the West Pacific that did not appear on most charts and sat outside most of the important satellite paths.

The home port of the Tuatha de Danaan battle group, it was the hub for Mithril's West Pacific Fleet. With Captain Testarossa and the Special Response Team, Urzu, amongst its most illustrious members.

Tessa was here, at her desk going over her operation report and other pertinent files in preparation for the council meeting scheduled to begin in the next two hours.

She'd expected to spend only a brief time going over the facts in her report and soldify her thoughts and positions, however, she had, almost immediately found her reports had been changed.

The over all basics of the events were the same, but not all.

Her updates on Ranma Satomi's capabilities had been rendered more vague. She'd given reports on Ranma's demonstrated abilities including statements from the woman herself and some witnesses. But now the woman was played off as an independent mercenary.

There had also been reports of unusual blood work from the three children taken in for medical treatment, now very much appearing to be routine. Mention of their involvement reduced to only hostages.

Reports on the Musk, reduced to descriptions of a regional terrorist group with similar kidnapping tendencies.

Frowning, she started to pull up the various files' adjustment records and found that, as far as the computer was concerned, she was the last one to modify them.

She was pondering this as the message came in that the meeting had been pushed up by forty minutes.

"Private Farrel?" Tessa called, pushing down on the intercom. "Inform Lieutenant Commander Kalinin and Commander Mardukas that the council meeting has been pushed up to thirty minutes from now and have them meet me in the council chamber in ten minutes."

"Yes, Ma'am," the secretary said on the other end.

Gathering her information together the captain mentally prepared a new report on this breach of security. She stood up and started walking out of her office towards the Merida council room where she sat calmly down and waited for her subordinates.

They weren't long behind.

"Captain, I assume there is there a reason you asked for us to be here twenty minutes ahead of the meeting?" Kalinin said.

"Someone's tampered with my reports," Tessa said firmly. "Much of the mention of the Satomis and other paranormals has been mostly eliminated from the report."

"Do you think they altered them somehow?" Mardukas asked.

"I wouldn't say so from their behavior," Tessa said. "And if they had a psionic way to alter the reports why would they bother with our memories intact?"

"Perhaps they assumed we would overlook the changes to your report," Kalinin suggested.

"Perhaps," Tessa said. "In any case, I plan to report this to the council in addition to my debriefing on the rescue operation."

As she spoke, her chair and one other started into life.

Across from her was the monocled image of Lord Mallory's hologram looking across the table at her.

"Captain Testarossa," he said. "It is good to see you well."

"And good to see you as well, Lord Mallory," Tessa said.

"I'm glad you can make it to this briefing," Lord Mallory said.

"Briefing?" Tessa said. "Shouldn't we wait for the rest of the General Council."

"This meeting is not for the General Council," Lord Mallory said. "In fact it is paramount that we finish this before the General Council convenes, at the original time."

"I'm not sure I understand, sir," Tessa said.

"You may have already noticed changes in your recent operations report," Lord Mallory said.

Tessa's eyes widened.

"Sir," Tessa said. "What is Mithril's interest in Ranma Satomi?"

"I'll be explaining that," Lord Mallory said. "Check your monitors, you should be receiving a report on Psyche Division."

Nodding, she looked down toward her chair's briefing screen and watched the information pulling up on her screen.

"Psyche Division, yes, I see it here," Tessa said. "I don't believe I've heard of this before, sir, but on first glance it appears to deal primarily with paranormal affairs."

"That's exactly what it is," Lord Mallory said. "Psyche division primarily keeps a list of known psychics and mystics and files on investigated paranormal phenomena. In fact, if the Whispered had not been a key factor in the founding of this organization, they'd likely fall under the aegis of Psyche division."

"And Ranma Satomi is an operative of Psyche?" Tessa concluded.

"If you can pull up her file," the head of the General Council suggested.

Tessa did as instructed and looked over the screen.

**Ranma Satomi  
Ethnicity: Japanese  
Nationality: Recently established Japanese citizenship.  
Age: 34  
Birthdate: Unknown  
Status: Independent Operator  
Flags: Reliable, Uninitiated, Potential Recruit  
Enhanced Bio-Energy Production: Inborn, Class A  
Bio-Energy Manipulation: Training, Class A  
Paranormal Sensitivity: Exposure, Class C  
Regenerative Inhibitor: Exposure, Class C  
Danger Sense: Training, Class C  
Environmental Energy Manipulation: Training, Clas...**

There was a small laundry list of martial art styles and demonstrated abilities.

She read further and noted that the first time Mithril had used her was eight years back.

Prior to that they tracked her to a police report, sexual assault Tessa noted, and hospital, shark attack, in Greece.

Tessa winced at the day that must have been.

Unfortunately, that's where the story stopped and since Mithril hadn't yet been formed, much less Psyche division, little more had been found on the woman.

"For the most part, Psyche does not have full agents," Lord Mallory said. "But keeps track of individuals such as Miss Satomi that we've found to be trustworthy in the case that we have a paranormal situation to deal with. Since Miss Satomi and you have stumbled on each other, it is convenient to brief you on the situation."

"I understand, sir," Tessa said. "And I am to assume that this is not to be discussed with the General Council."

"Correct," Lord Mallory said. "You are going to find yourself reprimanded for your reckless authorization of the use of the arbalest in the rescue of three individuals, as well as your risk of the Danaan to run the secondary rescue."

"Of course, sir," the captain said.

"This extends to your subordinates, is that understood?" Mallory asked.

"Of course, sir," the two behind Tessa said.

"As to Ranma Satomi," Lord Mallory said. "Psyche division will handle that on their end, hopefully you'll be seeing more of her. As far as the general council is to be told, her potential ESP is unconfirmed. The DNA reports on her children are classified to the highest degree, I expect you to inform your medical staff immediately."

"And the troops that witnessed the abilities?" Tessa asked.

"Soldier's rumors, campfire stories," Lord Mallory said. "Be sure to brief the SRT members that had close contact with her as well. No mention of Psyche Division should be made at this time."

"Understood," Captain Testarossa said.

"Now, this briefing is at an end," Lord Mallory said. "Take the remaining time to the council meeting to be appropriately surprised at the accusations of recklessness. And do have counter arguments prepared."

"Yes, sir," Tessa said, saluting moments before Mallory's chair disconnected and his image vanished. "Well, that's informative."

She closed the information on Psyche in her council monitor.

"I'm not sure I like the idea of this Psyche division," Mardukas said frowning.

"People such as Miss Satomi rarely have military attitudes," Kalinin noted. "This might be the best way to utilize their abilities without the problem of organizational strife."

****

Melissa Mao smirked as she walked past the horde of kids going in to visit Kaname Chidori, including a tall young man with a scar along his jawline.

She'd just told Kaname that Sousuke had been assigned to his next mission.

The girl was probably worrying and imagining all sorts of improbably dangerous missions for Sousuke to run through just now. Somewhere in the litany she could almost see a mummified Sousuke floating in a cloud over Kaname's head, like some parody of the English Patient, and Kaname bemoaning the fact that she couldn't be there for him.

And any moment now, the girl was going to see, hear or otherwise notice Sousuke among the hordes of other students and...

"What are you doing hiding back there?! You big dork?!"

Yep, there it was.

Toying with children was fun and easy.

Now all she had to do was pick up Kurz from his touching base with Eija Satomi, since she was awake too, and they could be back to the Danaan.

The Satomi girl's room was much more sedate, with only Eija, her brother and mother within visiting her.

A lot in contrast to Kaname Chidori.

Melissa put on her best nurse's smile as she moved into the room and closed the door behind her.

"Hey," she said. "Good to see you're all better. Two days of sleep gets fairly worrisome. Where're your visitors?"

"Sousuke and Kyoko visited earlier," Eija said, pointing toward a small bouquet next to a first-aid kit and bottles of vitamin supplements.

"It would have been better if we could have avoided the hospital," Ranma said. The red-head's feathers seemed to get ruffled as soon as she saw Mao come in dressed as a nurse.

"There are a lot of questions I imagine," Mao agreed, looking around. "Something the matter Miss Satomi?"

"Just some dark thoughts," Ranma said. "Are you here to tell us what not to say?"

"Actually, Kurz was already supposed to be doing that," Mao said.

"The German perv?" Ranma asked. "Don't think we've seen him. Anyway, we know better than to say anything about what happened."

"Yeah, we've had to keep secrets a long time," Deimosu agreed.

"Good to hear," Mao said, but paused as she noticed something. "You said Kurz never showed up?"

"That's right," Ranma said.

"And your other daughter?" Mao asked.

****

"Oh please," Naiki half-giggled, blushing madly and giggling as she leaned back against a wall with a can with tea held coquettishly in front of her blossoming chest. "You can't be serious."

"No, really," Kurz said, leaning in close to her. "You are, without a doubt, the most beautiful and gorgeous woman to ever save my life."

"I was all beat up and bloody and sweaty," the green-haired girl protested, sharp white teeth glinting cutely.

"And there is nothing more beautiful than a treasure born up out of the depths of the earth," he said. "With the dirt shaken off to find an emerald masterfully sculpted into the wonderous warrior-siren in front of me."

Naiki's eyes glittered at the words "warrior-siren" and she drank from her tea, trying to copy Eija's demure manner comedically.

"Warrior-siren," she intoned giddily as Kurz leaned further in.

The mercenary's lips were getting closer to her own and she felt a rush of blood to her face.

"Exac..."

"Ahem," two voices coughed darkly behind Kurz.

The german sniper and the green-haired demi-goddess turned about to see two women staring darkly at the situation before them.

"Ah, Mao," Kurz said nervously.

"'Kaasan?" Naiki said hesitantly.

"Pull out, Weber," Mao growled. "I mean disengage...grr back off."

As if about to be burned, Kurz backed away from the green-haired young woman.

"I'll just go...keep Eija company," Naiki said as she started to walk away.

"This means I have to worry about both genders doesn't it?" Ranma asked as her daughter walked past her and flinched.

And as Naiki walked away, both Mao's and Ranma's attention turned on Kurz.

"I...I was just deflo...err debriefing her," Kurz said nervously.

****

The nurse skirted nervously around the pale girl with the bright red eyes. Normally, she'd be sure to do some nice things like chat with the patient or fluff their pillow or something like that, but she felt no desire for that here.

In fact, she felt like running every time she came through the door of the girl's room. Especially the times when the nurse came in and found the girl performing some sort of martial art kata. There was a heavy feeling that, if the girl decided, she could run havoc through the hospital.

It made it worse that the girl wasn't a terrible person. In fact, she was very polite and understanding.

Currently, the girl was standing by the window out of the way and turned to look outside, her disturbing eyes kept unseen.

Still, it was a relief that she was going to be out of the hospital soon, just one more overnight observation.

"Here you are, miss," the woman said. "Everything's tidy."

"Well, I'm not here much longer, but thank you," Eija said. "And sorry."

"For what?" the nurse asked.

"For being a bother," Eija said.

Feeling a bit of shame at the girl's own guilt for just being what she was, the nurse flushed and left the room.

The Satomi girl sighed quietly.

One more night for observation.

Then back home with people didn't flinch when she looked at them.

"What's with the gloomy look?" a voice asked behind her.

Eija turned around to see Kaname standing in the doorway, wearing one of the pajama-like hospital garb given to mobile patients.

"Kaname, what are you doing here?" Eija asked.

"I'm stuck here for the night too," the blue-haired girl said. "Might as well come by and say hi to my fellow inmate."

"I see," Eija said, smiling.

"Yeah, yeah," Kaname said moving toward the desk beside Eija's bed. "Let's see, flowers...I'm guessing that's Kyoko. And the first aid and vitamins have to be Sergeant Nutjob."

The tone of voice was playful, but Eija smiled at the tone.

"He doesn't have much understanding of aesthetics," the dark-haired girl laughed in agreement. "But it is thoughtful."

"What?" Kaname said. "How is this thoughtful?"

"I lost my kit on the plane in Korea," Eija said.

"Oh, right," the blue-haired girl responded. "I forgot, you're on the same gung-ho wave-length."

Eija smiled at her from the window.

"Did he get you anything?" she asked.

"Same thing," Kaname said shrugging. "Vitamins and first-aid kit."

The Satomi nodded and turned to look back outside the window at the setting sun. She was surprised when Kaname moved up to her side and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"Sorry only Sousuke and Kyoko came to see you," she said.

"That's all right," Eija said. "Nothing you can do about it."

"Oh yes there is!" Kaname declared before pointing toward the horizon. "When we get out of here, we're Akibahara-bound and it's cuteness overload for us."

Eija blinked at the suddenness of the declaration and laughed nervously.

The quiet moment of a friendship in the making was broken by a sound from down the hall. A startled cry and the crash of metal as an insistent voice demanded explanation.

Kaname and Eija moved toward the doorway and looked out to see Sousuke aiming a gun at an orderly as he had the man pressed against the wall.

"I told you to give me the whereabouts of Miss Chidori this instant," the mercenary was saying.

"Sousuke!" Kaname shouted, drawing the young man's attention. "Put him down!"

"Ah, Miss Chidori," he said, dropping the orderly. "You're with Miss Satomi. My apology, sir, I appear to have been mistaken as to the situation."

In response to that, the orderly fled down the halls shrieking, not seeing Kaname stalk up toward Sousuke.

"Visiting hours are over, doofus!" Kaname snapped. "What are you still doing here?"

"I'm still res...owww!" Sousuke stopped trying to explain as Kaname twisted his ear, literally and started dragging him over to where Eija was standing and shaking her head with a small smile.


	8. Approaches

Ranma sat back in her chair and sighed in relief upon seeing her children all back home.

Safe and sound.

The oh so brief feeling of relief that came after a recent near-catastrophe.

Shaking her head she stood up and started moving to move about the warehouse that she'd set her home in.

Her bedroom was in the former administrative area overlooking the main floor, each of her kids had taken one of the clerical offices below.

Instead of the small blank area they'd been running katas in before, they had a full dojo space and both display and storage for equipment and weaponry. There was a small library of books and scrolls in the last room, with room for a ritual space.

The kitchen and dining area had long been complete, along with the restroom. But she'd had contractors see to that before they'd moved in.

Repairing broken floors and walls at the Tendos had given her a firm grounding in maintaining a building, but a plumber she was not.

Nor an electrician.

And her early attempts do it yourself with the first piece of property she'd bought had been....painful.

Since then Ranma'd used contractors and had them set things up before she moved in. It meant a lot of checking things out for herself for any sort of suspicious addition, but that was usually clear.

The worst she'd found was a hidden camera in the bathroom, placed by a solitary pervert thinking to get some footage of her.

That was a nostalgic beating.

For the most part, she never got to deal with anything so harmless as a peeping tom anymore.

She still had some stuff to add to get the feng shui to the optimum. It would help give the impression that she gave a damn about interior decorating too.

Something red.

Red was always agreeable with her chi.

In anycase, there was nothing like a converted warehouse for the martial artist with family.

There had been a butterfly earlier, but the meeting with the client wasn't for another day or two. So she had today to practice and refine her skills and generally relax.

At least until the cell phone rang.

Sighing, Ranma walked over to the counter her cell phone lay on and checked the name.

"Nabiki," Ranma said, sighing with a slight smile on her face before answering the phone. "Hibiki-san, do you need a feng shih again?"

"If it wouldn't be too much of a problem," the woman on the other end of the line responded. "My brother-in-law wanted to compare notes about the architechtural designs."

Ranma narrowed her eyes thoughtfully.

That sounded fishy.

"It'll be tonight," Nabiki added. "So if you want to bring your children with you, that'd be fine."

Ranma was sure of it now, Nabiki had thought of something and was testing a theory.

"Well, thank you," Ranma said. "What time would that be?"

****

Naiki gave an exaggerated winking pose in the direction of the cute, pig-tailed shutterbug and then went right back to walking to class, yawning.

Another boring day of classes that she didn't really need. All because 'Kaasan thought they should have a full education.

At least it would be another substitute teacher for homeroom. She'd have to thank whatever force on earth had forced that annoying jerk Kogure out of classes.

Yawning, she turned into the classroom and moved toward her seat near the back of the room and sat down, putting her feet up non-chalantly.

She noticed a couple of guys trying to range for a peek under her skirt and smirked. Not anybody could see anything with the desk in the way.

"Good morning, children," a sultry voice said, drawing Naiki's eyes forward.

It was a foreigner, with long blonde hair and sharp features dressed in a barely acceptable version of a business dress. She smiled like a hungry alley cat as she took in all the students, sending a shiver down most of their backs.

"My name is Mara Geisthexe," the blond woman said. "I'm going to be your new homeroom teacher for a while."

****

"She said she had three children, correct?" Kasumi asked, stepping out of the kitchen.

"Right," Nabiki said irritably. "Triplets, sixteen years old."

"The name is really probably a coincidence, Nabiki," Kasumi said quietly to her sister. "Did she really behave like Ranma?"

"No, she was intelligent, eloquent and educated," Nabiki said. "Nothing like Ranma at all."

"That's rather unkind," Kasumi noted. "But true I'm afraid."

"But she knew I had sisters," Nabiki commented. "I never said that. I talked about my brother-in-law, but for all she should have known, that could have been Ryouga's brother."

"Might I note," Kasumi said. "That the person about whom your making these conclusions makes a business of predicting events and warding off evil spirits?"

"She's a feng shih, not a psychic or telepath," Nabiki grumbled.

"The woman can't be both?" Kasumi asked.

"What woman is this?" a third voice asked.

Both of the other women in the room froze and turned to look at the newcomer. Walking in from the backyard, dressed in maritime dress blues, was their younger sister.

"Akane," Nabiki said. "I thought you were in the Sea of Japan."

"Oh, so that's the welcome I get," Akane said eyes widening with a mock attitude of offense. "I get leave to visit my sister who is finally expecting her first child, and the response is: 'I thought you were in the Sea of Japan.'?"

"Well, consider it revenge for 'Hey, that looks like P-Chan,'" Nabiki responded after rolling her eyes as she stood up and walked across to face Akane with a smirk.

Akane winced, shaking her head and finally sighing.

"Okay, that's getting off easy," Akane agreed.

Kasumi crossed the room and hugged her younger sister as the verbal sparring came to a brief end.

"You still could have called first," Kasumi said. "Is your husband with you?"

"No, still at home, running the dojo," Akane said. "Tofu? Should I even ask about Ryouga?"

"Ryouga's in the dojo," Nabiki said defensively.

"And Tofu's still in the clinic," Kasumi said. "He'll be back tonight, we've got company coming over."

"That's what it sounded like," Akane said. "Who is it?"

"I hired a feng shih to help build the new place," Nabiki said.

"Oh," Akane said. "Hardly sounds like a social event."

"There's a...coincidence regarding her name," Kasumi said.

"Oh? What's her name?" Akane asked.

*****

Ranma paused in front of the gate to the Tendo dojo.

So much time had passed since she'd been here.

But that wasn't the telling bit, nope, as an American character in a movie she liked once said, "it wasn't the years, but the mileage."

"Okaasan," Eija said, looking over at her mother. "Is something wrong?"

"No, not at all," Ranma said. "Everything is where it should be."

"Ooo, they have a dojo," Naiki noted, pointing to the sign on the wall. "I'll go around to the back."

Ranma reached out and wrapped an arm around her daughter.

"We don't challenge clients to martial arts duels," Ranma said. "It's not healthy for business."

"Try not to embarrass us too much, Naiki," Deimosu noted.

Shaking her head and sighing, Ranma took a deep breath and stepped through the gate to the door and ringing the door.

It was a moment before a ten year old girl with long brown hair answered the door.

"Hello," Ranma said to her.

"Are you Miss Satomi?" the girl asked.

"That's me," the red-head answered. "Are your parents home?"

"MmHmm," the girl said, nodding.

The girl continued looking at the Satomis for a few more seconds, staring towards the back were Eija was trying not to draw attention.

"Are you going to go get them, kid?" Naiki asked.

"Kimiko-chan, are the guests at the door?" a voice asked that had the red-head's eyes widen fractionally.

The woman that came to the door was not the image she remembered, but then again, she was far from either the boy or girl the woman probably remembered.

Her blue-black hair was still worn short, though not in the same page-boy cut any longer. Instead it was the sensible cut of a middle-aged woman in the military. Which went well with the lieutenant commander's bars on her dress blues.

The woman bent down to smile at the little brown-haired girl.

"Why don't you go tell your mother the guests are here," the woman said.

"Okay, Auntie Saotome," the girl said, nodding before disappearing back into the building.

"Saotome?" Deimosu said under his breath, giving a confused glance toward his sisters, who shrugged in return.

The woman stood up and extended a hand toward Ranma.

"Akane Saotome," she said. "Sorry about this."

There was the feeling of a pause for Ranma before the next part of the statement registered in her mind.

"Kimiko is pretty shy," Akane noted. "So, want to come in and we can finish introductions?"

"Sure," Ranma said, gesturing for her kids to the enter the building. "Don't forget to take off your shoes."

"Right," Deimosu said at the entryway as he almost passed through without taking off the shoes.

"We grew up in Greece," Eija explained politely as she waited patiently behind her family.

"I'm...Ranma Satomi," the martial artist said. "These are my children, Deimosu, Naiki and Eija."

"Interesting names," Akane noted as they moved out of the entryway.

"I was trying to give them names to fit in," Ranma admitted.

"Of course," Naiki said. "Since we're all named after mythical gods instead of having normal Greek names...it didn't really work."

Ranma sighed and shook her head.

"Naiki," Deimosu muttered.

"Don't worry about it," Akane said. "Tomboys will be tomboys."

Ranma shuffled uncomfortably at the comment.

"What's that mean?" Naiki asked.

"I think that's obvious, little sister," Deimosu said smirking.

They came into the living area, and Kasumi appeared coming forward to welcome them into the house, Kimiko holding onto her dress.

Kasumi was very much like Ranma remembered her being. Perhaps with a few more lines, but she paid less attention to the other former Tendo than she otherwise would have given Akane's presence.

"Hello, I'm Kasumi Ono, I'm afraid my husband is still at his clinic," Kasumi said. "But he should be home shortly. Nabiki and her husband are in the dojo, Akane, could you show her the way?"

"I think I remember it, 'Neechan," Akane said.

"Can you kids stay out of the way?" Ranma asked her children.

"No problem," Naiki said. "Is it okay if I watch TV? Ono-san?"

"That shouldn't be a problem," Kasumi said, smiling. "Would one of you like to help me in the kitchen?"

"I can do that," Eija noted. "If...you don't mind."

"Why should I mind?" Kasumi asked.

Ranma turned to watch the scene as she followed Akane through the familiar hallway.

"So, you're a feng shih?" Akane said.

"Yes," Ranma said.

"Do you practice any martial art?" the woman in the officer's uniform asked.

"A little karate," Ranma said, a bit nostalgically.

"Maybe we can have a little match," Akane said. "Just a bit for fun since neither of us is dressed for it."

"If it doesn't take long," Ranma said as they entered the dojo.

Ryouga looked a lot larger than Ranma remembered him being, apparently he'd had a growth spurt since Ranma vanished. Then again, most of Ranma's memories of Ryouga came out of a body a lot closer in size to the other fighter.

There were a few more scars on the man's body, but she could say the same herself. He'd kept in shape all these years, and it looked like he'd done some heavy fighting at one point or another. Judging by the shape of some of those scars, comparable to some of Naiki's new ones, Ranma judged it was conventional warfare he'd been involved in more than the paranatural stuff Ranma had mostly dealt with.

Ryouga was currently practicing a kata in the dojo while Nabiki sat in the opening out toward the yard drinking coffee and writing in a notebook. She looked up as Akane and Ranma came in, watching the two carefully.

"Ranma Satomi," Akane said. "Ryouga Hibiki, I think you've met my sister already."

Ryouga frowned and walked over to tower over the petite red-head in her red-business suit and look down toward her. Obviously taking the time to analyze everything he could see about her.

"Pleased to meet you," Ryouga finally said in the polite tone he'd saved for most people that weren't Ranma.

Ranma sighed and almost wished the "prepare to die" that he'd almost expected to come out.

"Thanks for coming," Nabiki said. "And don't mind Ryouga. He's an overprotective boar."

"Nabiki," Ryouga protested. "Do you have to make jokes about that?"

"You haven't finished paying that one off yet, brother-in-law," Akane noted with a smirk.

"Sorry, missed the reference," Ranma said. "Is it an inside joke?"

Off to the side, Akane leaned against a wall and smiled at the question.

"Yeah," Ryouga said after a moment. "Anyway, you're supposed to be helping us design our house, right?"

"That's why your wife asked me to come over," Ranma said, looking between the two.

"Wondering how I ended up with someone like him?" Nabiki asked.

"It's not an immediately obvious pairing," Ranma admitted.

"It wasn't what I expected, I can tell you," Ryouga said.

"Excuse me?" Nabiki said turning around to look at the fighter with a dangerous smirk. "Are you talking like being married to me is some horrible fate? Didn't I nurse you tenderly for three weeks in that dry, dirty, sandy hole?"

"Of course you did," Ryouga said quickly. "I didn't mean anything by it."

Akane leaned forward from her position at the wall.

"The way I heard it," she stage-whispered. "It took her the first two weeks to learn how to make a proper bandage."

Nabiki frowned and looked at Ryouga.

"You promised never to mention that to anyone," she said.

"I never told her anything," Ryouga protested. Ranma noticed he was firm about this. "Someone read your journal."

He pointed at Akane.

"Akane!" Nabiki snapped as she faced her youngest sister.

"I was under orders to investigate the belongings of all refugees at the time," Akane rationalized.

"I wasn't a refugee, I was your sister," Nabiki growled. "Though you apparently recognized him first."

"I thought you cleared me of that," Akane said.

"That was before I knew you'd abused your position to invade my privacy," Nabiki said before turning to Ranma as if just remembering she was there. "Sorry, we must look like a bunch of squabbling brats to you, Satomi-san."

"That's fine," Ranma said. "I know how families are."

"Right, did you bring your kids, by the way?" Nabiki asked.

"They're with Kasumi," Akane said.

"I see," Nabiki said. "Well, dinner should be ready soon and that means Tofu is close to getting here. I should get Ryouga to the dining room."

"I can find the dining room," Ryouga protested.

"You guys go ahead," Akane said. "It's been forever since I was in the dojo and Satomi-san and I promised each other a short match."

Nabiki gave Akane a long look and then looked toward Ranma, trying to decide if the red-head as the same Ranma she suspected her to be and if Akane was setting herself up for disappointment.

Either way.

"Well, we'll leave you to that then," Nabiki said after a moment, dragging Ryouga with her.

And Ranma and Akane were alone in the dojo.

****

"So what do you practice?" Ranma asked.

"Mostly two family styles," Akane said.

"Two?" Ranma said. "Yours and your husband's?"

Akane nodded.

"You see," the dark-haired woman explained as she faced Ranma. "It was arranged for me to marry a young man of the Saotome clan so that we could continue the combination of our family styles."

"Sounds like something from a manga," the red-head said. "So I guess you married him then?"

"No," Akane said, moving closer. Her eyes furrowed dangerously. "He disappeared one night and we could never find him. We lost Nabiki for two years because China blew up into civil war at the wrong time and she happened to be in nanjing chasing rumors."

"I can't say how sorry I am," Ranma said quietly.

"Well," Akane said. "We have a match to do."

"We do," Ranma said.

Both stood apart from each other with no apparent change in stance for a moment before Akane lashed out with a short punch, which Ranma sidestepped fractionally.

Then the Saotome-style strike twisted swiftly into a grasping hands joint lock that reached for her shoulder.

Ranma blinked in surprise and stepped fully to the side before jumping over the kick that followed.

Akane had gotten better.

Her strikes were efficient and wasted little motion. Her transitions were good, and she no longer telegraphed her actions like a boom box set to highest volume.

She still had something of a temper, but she was reigning it in. Making it power rather than hindrance.

Of course, Ranma had gotten better too.

Another dodge and Ranma was around behind the woman in the naval uniform and the first clean contact of the match came in the form of a finger in the back of Akane's hand.

Akane blinked and turned around to face Ranma.

"You're pretty good," she said quietly. "You..."

She laughed slightly, remembering things and Ranma echoed her with a nervous chitter herself.

"You want to be friends?" Akane asked.

The dojo resounded with quiet laughter for a long minute before the sound quietly changed to sobbing as a red-head wrapped her arms around Akane's form and the larger woman held her.

"Baka," Akane whispered.

*****

"Dinner's ready," Kasumi said. "Would someone go tell Satomi-san and Akane?"

"I'll get them," Deimosu said, thankful for something to do.

*****

"So how'd you end up with the Saotome name?" Ranma asked as she sat on the porch of the dojo.

"Ryuu was adopted in to clan," Akane said.

"Ryuu...Kumon?" the other martial artist said in surprise.

"He was the only other one with Saotome-ryu training," Akane said. "Even if it was just the Yamasen-ken to start."

"You went with the arrangement after all," Ranma noted.

"After...I got tired of fighting it," Akane said. "I'd lost too much to risk another campaign."

"Are you happy?" Ranma asked.

"We've gotten there," Akane said. "The first few years were...cold. But we've gotten there. It's a nice life now."

"And the uniform?" the redhead asked.

"I could ask you about the feng shih thing," Akane protested. "But fine. Nabiki'd just gone missing and the Sea of Japan was flooded with pirates and mercenaries. I wanted to do something about it and maybe it annoyed Ryuu a little at the beginning."

"I guess..." Ranma started. "I guess I already knew you'd have moved on."

"I think you knew that when you chose not to trust me enough to pick up a phone and call for help," Akane said accusingly.

"I'm sor..."

"No, I gave you too many hammers to expect trust," the other woman said, reigning in her temper again.

"Yeah," Ranma said. "It could have been great if we'd gotten past that."

Akane nodded.

"It can still be great," Akane said. "Just not romantic great."

"Besides which, you're straight," Ranma teased playfully, drawing a sad smirk from Akane.

There was another long moment of silence.

"I'm not going to ask you about the kids," Akane said. "I'm fairly certain I know how someone attracted to women ends up pregnant. But do they know?"

"Not yet," Ranma said firmly. "My job is to protect them, not give them more pain."

"What if the father comes for them?" Akane asked. "Is that the time for them to learn."

"I've trained them as well as I can," Ranma said. "Found them teachers for things I couldn't teach them. And...I'll have to tell them soon. I just hope that when I do, they know it's to protect them, not to get them to go avenge me. I don't want them avenging me. I don't want the smallest hair on their heads cut."

"Ranma Saotome," Akane said smiling. "If your kids know you at all, they know you don't let other people get hurt fighting your battles. Kasumi should be just about finished with dinner, let's go."

Both stood up and turned to walk out of the dojo, and found Deimosu walking towards them down the hallway waving.

"Okaasan," Deimosu said. "Saotome-san, dinner's ready."

"Yeah, we're coming, Dei-chan," Ranma called out.

"Don't call me that in front of people, Okaasan," the blonde young man said, letting the two adults pass him by.

As they passed in front of him, he slowed his pace to a momentary stop and breathed a sigh of relief that the two women had thought he was just coming to find them.

Deimosu started walking again, trying to bury what he'd just unintentionally learned.

****

Naiki watched as Eija started walking off to go to her class, joining Kaname where she was walking with Kyoko. Soldier boy wasn't far behind, as usual.

The green-haired girl pouted as she saw that the pig-tailed girl wasn't aiming her camera anywhere just at the moment and then shrugged as she looked over to where Deimosu was walking next to her.

Her brother had been moody since yesterday when they went on the business trip with their mom. Their mother, by contrast, had looked a little more relaxed than she had before the trip.

Something had happened.

Maybe Deimosu had gotten in trouble or something.

If that was so, Naiki wished she knew what he had done. It wasn't fair that every time she messed up that everybody knew it.

Then again, she had to admit that when she messed up, it was usually pretty loud.

"See you after school, Deimosu," Naiki said.

"Hmm, yeah," her brother said. "Don't get in trouble for ogling your teacher."

"But she makes it sooo easy," the green-haired girl said with a smirk as she diverted off towards her class.

Naiki paused a moment as she passed one of the side hallways leading off to the gym, which was usually deserted at this time of day. And yet she was hearing voices down the hall and around the corner a short distance away.

Shrugging, the Satomi turned down the hall and followed the voices until she could hear what they were talking about.

"I don't think you get it Kazama," a young man was saying. "We gave you a job and you didn't just fail at it, you gave my name to Sagara."

"That wasn't too nice," another voice said.

"I'm sorry, he had a gun and everything," a whiny voice said in response.

"We don't care what sort of toy gun he had," a third voice said. "Avoiding a few paintballs isn't worth ratting out your buddies."

"Buddies?" Kazama whined. "You stole my negatives and said you'd burn them if I didn't steal Kaname's panties."

"See the ingratitude," the first said. "You don't even recognize when someone's giving you an opportunity."

At that, Naiki came around the corner.

"Okay, I've heard enough," she said.

The three thugs encircling Kazama turned around to face her.

"Listen, chick, you stay...AHHHH!!"

Fleeing from around the corner, Kazama bolted headlong away from the sounds of pain being inflicted by her rescuer on her tormentors.

A few moments of intense activity, for the three thugs at least, later and Naiki was turning away from three painfully twisted and battered high school toughs shaking out one of her wrists.

"That was a good warm up," she said as she started to walk away from the groaning individuals.

"Very nice," a sultry voice said behind the young martial artist.

Naiki turned around to see her homeroom teacher walking into the collection of thugs that had just been brutally taught a lesson.

"Ah, Geisthexe-san," Naiki said nervously. "They were..."

"Don't worry about it, kid," the blonde woman said, tilting the face of one of the kids up with the toe of her high heeled shoes. "They deserved it. If you don't tell anyone about this, I won't."

She gave Naiki an encouraging smile.

"Sometimes, the rules just get in the way of what you should do," she said.

"Right," Naiki said, relieved.

"Now, we have class to get to," the woman said, encouraging the girl to move forward. "Get there before I do and you aren't tardy."

"Oh, thanks Geisthexe-san!" Naiki said as she zipped away, leaving the blonde woman behind amongst the toughs.

The blonde woman shrunk down into a younger form, dressed as a Jindai-high freshman girl, though she kept her high heels for the moment.

The disguised demoness smirked as she set her heel down on the hand of one of the three and started to grind in waking the boy up from the pain just long enough.

"So, did you get your peek Murano-kun?" she asked sweetly to the dizzy young man.

"You bitch! You didn't say she'd be kicking me when I saw her panties," he snapped.

"Should have thought to ask," Mara said before she kicked him unconscious and walked away, melting back into an adult teacher.

****

The rest of the blonde Satomi's class was about the field in a makeshift track and field situation as Deimosu stood, thinking, towards the edge of the field and looking outward.

Deimosu wasn't usually the brooding sort.

Most of the time, he was very up front about what he did and did not like, or what he thought. The exception being such secrets that the family didn't want out and about like: we're supernaturally powerful martial artists.

He'd had experience with some of his mother's personal secrets before and wasn't surprised that she still had some.

It made sense, given how much secrets ran their life, that there were some things about their mother's life that she really wasn't prepared to tell them just yet, or else didn't think they were ready for.

And he could really admit it right now.

He wasn't ready to be thinking that he and his sisters were a result of rape. Even if it was something he should have considered himself a long time ago.

There was another thing he was certain of.

His mother was wrong if she expected him to stay out of this when she told him.

Deimosu could almost accept that if it were a matter of his mother's pride and desire to settle her own affairs, but it was more about him and his sisters' safety than her. She was putting their safety over her own pride as a martial artist.

That wasn't a reason he could accept for staying out of the situation.

Ranma had raised them to protect people that couldn't take care of themselves and while his mother didn't fit that description, she'd also raised them to protect each other.

He couldn't face himself in the mirror if he accepted the idea that he was supposed to do everything he could to protect his family...

...except in cases where he might get hurt.

He couldn't call himself a Satomi...or Saotome...or whatever...if he accepted his mother's plan for him to just stay back and protect himself.

The only problem was that he had no idea where to go with what he already knew.

And what he knew was that at some time seventeen years ago, one Ranma Saotome vanished from Japan and appeared in Greece, pregnant with three children.

He kicked a soccer ball that rolled near to him and cursed under his breath.

The ball soared through the air and past the boy that had originally kicked it off target, continuing onward to dent a shed at the other edge of the field.

Wincing at the loss of temper, Deimosu did his best to swallow his anger.

He was still keeping his thoughts inward when he said goodbye to Eija as she went off with Kanama and Kyoko to go to Akihabara. Sousuke Sagara tagging along behind them.

When Naiki hung back to talk to one of her teachers, of all things, he continued to keep his feelings quiet. So that he was heavily into brooding as he came home and found his mother, dressed in a dark blue business suit similar to her red one, getting ready to go out.

"Where's Naiki?" Ranma asked.

"She wanted to stay behind and talk to a teacher," Deimosu said.

"Good," Ranma responded after a long moments thought. "Out of character and strange for her, but good. Did she say what for?"

"No, something about a history project," Deimosu noted. "Do you have a job to go to?"

"Just a meeting," Ranma explained. "They want me to listen to a long-term offer of some kind. I'll probably be back before dinner."

"In the mean time," Deimosu noted. "It's just me."

"That's right," Ranma said. "So make sure to practice your meditation and not to burn down the house."

"Don't worry about the last one until Naiki gets home," the tall, blonde, young man said.

"She's not that bad," Ranma said shaking her head before sauntering out of the building.

It was only a few minutes after being left alone in the house did something occur to Deimosu. He had access to a ritual circle in the family library.

Eagerly, he moved into the library and started drawing his circle on the floor and then moving into it, kneeling down to quietly work at chanting a spell from the open text a few yards away.

"Give me what I need," he whispered between lines of prayer. "Tell me how I can beat the one that hurt my mother."

He repeated those two lines several times, feeling the twisting sensation that came with attempting to push his own thoughts onto the fabric of the Earth around his.

Finally, as he started to feel his vision greying out, the spell came to an abrupt end of things and a small, heavy paper card fluttered down to the ground in front of Deimosu.

Curious, he bent over to pick up the fallen piece of heavy cardstock and read it.

"The Kindly Ones' Roost."

"Odd name for a bar," Deimosu noted as he flipped the card over to read the back.

"Come to us to settle your affairs," the back of the card said.

****

Akihabara was usually an all day sort of affair, but Kaname wasn't interested in waiting for sunday to keep her promise. Besides, she was in Japan on her own responsibility, and she'd already talked to Eija's mother about the possibility of being out late so she was fine.

One night out late couldn't be too bad.

And of course, she doubted if Sousuke slept more than five hours a night anyway.

There was another benefit to going out to Akihabara today, and that was that the crowds were going to be a little bit thinner without so many students coming in from out of the area.

"So what is in Akihabara?" Eija asked. "You said something about cute overload."

"It's where you go to get anime, manga, memorabilia, stuffed animals, ice cream, software, games and anything else you could possibly imagine," Kaname said.

"I did a circuit of the location recently," Sousuke said. "As she said, it appears to be a bazaar of sorts specializing in first and second-hand electronics and various figurines and fictional supplements. There are plenty of materials on hand to aid in the production of any of a number of surveillance or ex..."

And at that point the harisen came down on his head lightly.

"Anyway, regardless of what Sergeant Nutjob says," Kaname noted. "It's a place to go relax, shop and have fun."

"I do not think we should relax," Sousuke noted. "There are large crowds that could easily hide a number of..."

Down came the harisen again.

Eija kept her own thoughts on large crowds of people silent, Kaname was obviously psyched up about this and while she might be used to tolerate the soldiers commentary and attitudes, the pale, dark-haired girl didn't know how she'd take questions about this from the person she'd set it up for.

"Look, nothing happens in Akihabara," Kaname said. "It's a safe place full of fun stuff to do. We'll only be there two or three hours before it starts shutting down, but I figured you two would need to build up slowly rather than just tossing you into the deep end."

When the train came to a stop at the neighborhood in question, the three teens stopped off along with a small horde of other students and a few college-aged and older people. All coming for electronic components, software and otaku merchandise.

For once, Kaname found getting through the crowds to be easy as she led Sousuke and Eija through the streets, picking along to find her favorite hidden away stores away from the expensive name brand-name stores on the main street.

The first sign of success, such as it was, came from Sousuke rather than Eija.

He stopped over a large display featuring a hex-grid map and several plastic figurines depicting mecha and vehicle and troop formations.

"What's this?" he asked curiously. "I don't recognize any of these mecha designations."

The shopkeeper looked over and nodded.

"It's an American war simulation game," the man said. "Future wars after we've moved into space and colonized other planets. I believe its called Battletech."

"Interesting," Sousuke said, gears whirling as he considered the uses for simulating battle strategies and circumstances in his free time.

"If you're interested in simulating real Arm Slave combat," the shopkeeper noted. "We do have some Mecha and Mercenaries sets, that's a collectible miniature game that is based off real-world Mecha specs, at least what is public. We even sell a customization kit for altering the figures."

Across the way, Eija was looking at a store that was a little bit off the beaten track, appealing more to the yoga and meditative crowd, but Kaname supposed that included the dark-haired girl.

She was currently looking at the collected bansai trees and miniature zen gardens somewhat longingly.

"Need something?" Kaname asked.

"My room's feng shui is too active," she said. "I need something to soothe it down a little, I'm thinking the bansai sakura, but its just so expensive, and there's the indoor herb garden kit."

"Hey, didn't you say something about painting too, when you introduced yourself?" Kaname asked.

Eija's eyes were glittering a few minutes later as Kaname showed her the art supply shop with its endless shelves of supplies for the painting and sketching requirements of all sorts of artists from oils and waters to calligraphy kits and material for Western comic artists and mangaka.

****

Kaname was smug as they walked back to the train station.

Behind her, Eija was carrying an easel along with a giant-sized sketch pad and a bag with a small collection of paints she needed refilled apparently. Even Sousuke had purchased a copy of the Battletech game and several assorted packets of the "Mecha and Mercenaries" game.

He was currently looking at the customization kit, which was a set of glue and basic paints with small brushes.

"That'll be very hard to accurately put all the details down to customize these figures," Eija said. "Do you paint much?"

"No," Sousuke said. "However, it is primarily important to be able to identify the pieces for the purpose of the simulation. Though I'm not certain about these rules...some of the success and failure methods seem rather arbitrary. Rolling a die to determine hit or miss?"

"Kaname and I can help you with the customization then," the Satomi said turning to the blue-haired girl. "Didn't you do some sculpting for art?"

"That plaster bust?" Kaname said. "Yeah, but that's a little bit different from adding pieces to these game pieces. Still, sounds like a fun relatively normal thing to be doing. Though it's going to make me look like I'm in Kazama's peer group."

"Now, all I have to do is find figures to represent the two of you, Miss Chidori and Miss Satomi," Sousuke noted idly, unknowingly drawing blushes from the two girls. "And of course Miss Satomi's brother and sister."

"Oh, figures of us for tactical reasons," Kaname thought in disappointment.

Their considerations of the day's activities were cut short by the sound of screeching breaks and crashing metal.

Ahead of them, a driver had bent down to pick up a dropped cell phone and ended up slamming straight into a small delivery truck, causing both vehicles to crumple and block traffic in four directions and causing two other vehicles to plow into the first two.

Sousuke's first reaction was to look about the crowd for a sign of anyone watching them in an untoward manner. Eija's reaction was to leave her purchases leaning against the food vendor's cart and moving towards the wreck, obviously intending to help.

"Miss Satomi, that could be dangerous," Sousuke protested.

"Hey, wait," Kaname said before setting her own small bag of stuffed animals and manga aside and looking at the vendor. "Can you watch these for us?"

"That's no problem," the vendor said.

"Miss Chidori," Sousuke said, setting his own bags and following the two girls. "The vehicles could be dangerous."

"I know," Kaname said. "But we can't just stand here."

"Let's get them away from the accident," Eija noted as she started to grab a jammed door and try to bend it open.

"No, no," another voice said. "The weak point is over here, bend it this way."

Sousuke turned cautiously to see a short young man, maybe seven years his senior, with unkempt black hair giving instructions on what to do. Quickly he determined the young man was just there to help and moved to follow his instructions on another door as Eija pried hers open.

Kaname stood back and watched as the dark-haired girl, weaker than her siblings, but still very strong, went at the cars like a pair of living jaws of life under the young man's advice. Sousuke meanwhile was vigorously instructing other onlookers to back away from the accident while identifying others who could help.

Bitterly Kaname wondered how she could help.

"Can you help me carry the injured away?" a gentle voice asked Kaname from her side.

The blue-haired girl turned to look and see a young woman with a soothing look on her face and hair that could have been brown or silver or grey depending on how the light was hitting it.

"Sure, I can do that," Kaname said.

Between the five of them, and others on site helping, the victums that could walk themselves were freed and the unconscious quickly carried away.

Then it was a matter of first aid and emergency care.

Eija was looking over each of the injured carefully when the mechanic's girlfriend noticed the red as it filled her eyes and moved close in, drawing Sousuke's attention.

"You're a death seer?" she asked quietly, waiting as Eija nodded reluctantly. "Then please tell me who needs aid first, I'll attend to them."

The short young mechanic watched as Sousuke took notice of the quiet conference.

"Oh, don't worry," he said. "Being around Bell is probably the safest place to be."

Reluctantly, Sousuke nodded. His own instincts and feelings told him the same thing for whatever reason, but his habits were resisting that.

Eija watched with something akin to amazement as the long-haired woman worked her magic subtly making it seem like first aid and good luck on the part of the injured party. Of course, she had none of the problems in magical healing that Eija did.

But the thing that impressed her the most was that the only trace of death on the woman was that of death witnessed a long time ago. She had neither caused death, nor was death waiting for her.

She was immortal.

Soon the accident victims were all well tended and mostly commenting about their excellent luck to escape with only a few scrapes and bruises each. The official emergency crews were coming on site as the five main rescuers stood off to the side talking to each other.

"I'm Keiichi Morisato," the young man said, introducing himself.

"And I'm Belldandy," his ageless girlfriend said in a gentle tone as she bowed.

"I'm Kaname Chidori," Kaname returned politely.

"Eija Satomi," the dark-haired girl said as Kaname gestured toward her.

"And the sour one is Sousuke Sagara," Kaname said, as Sousuke nodded along with her.

"Thank you ever so much for acting as you did," Belldandy said.

"Ah, it was nothing," Kaname said.

"But it would have been a mess without you guys there," Keiichi said.

"It was very heroic," Belldandy noted.

"Really, Belldandy-sama," Eija said respectfully. "There wasn't much else to do."

"Indeed," Sousuke agreed. "The situation called for swift handling, and most of us seem trained to handle it. You're a mechanic of some sort?"

"Engineer," Keiichi said. "I used to head the Nekomi Tech Motor Club before I finished my graduate studies. Do you do life-guard work in the summers? Your first aid training is much better than mine."

Sousuke thought about that phrase for a moment.

"I guard lives full-time," he said by way of agreement.

"It is good to meet people who make such use of their skills in this world," Belldandy said. "So much of this world forces people to watch out only for themselves, it is pleasant to see people that step out to help others."

"Yeah, good to see there's something to do other than fight," Kaname noted teasingly.

"In any case," Belldandy said, smiling at Kaname's statement in a way that made the girl feel a bit ashamed at giving her friends a jibe in this situation. "Feel free to visit us anytime you want. We live at the Tariki Hongan Temple in Nekomi."

"You mentioned that you were from Nekomi," Sousuke said. "What are you doing here?"

"We needed a component for a personal project," Keiichi said with a laugh. "It's an obscure component you can't find easily, heard someone here had one today."

"I see," Sousuke noted.

"Well, it's getting late," Kaname said. "We should be going, but we'll be sure to stop by some time."

"That'll be lovely," Belldandy said. "My sisters would love to meet you, I think."


	9. Enticements and Lessons

"That was Ranma."

Eyes turned toward Akane and the quiet end of the day conversation came to a close.

Kasumi and Tofu's young daughter was away in bed and not around to hear the conversation that would be coming.

"What do you mean Akane?" Kasumi asked. "We know her name is the same and she looks similar."

"Similar, because it is Ranma," Akane repeated.

"That sounds a little more sure than even I am," Nabiki noted. "How do you know it was he...him."

"I sparred her," Akane said. "It was almost a repeat of what happened the first night she was here."

"But if that was Ranma, why didn't she...he say anything to us?" Kasumi asked.

"Because Ranma is a jerk?" Ryouga suggested drawing a few glares.

"Most likely because of her children," Tofu said. "Considering some of the first questions we'd ask."

"'What happened with the curse?', 'Where did these kids come from?'" Nabiki ticked off.

"She asked me not to say anything until today," Akane said. "I don't think she's talked to them yet, but I think she's planning on talking to them soon."

"So where did the children come from?" Ryouga asked. "I mean, all you have to do is look at them and see they're he...his kids."

The three girls were silent on that issue and even Tofu looked a little uncomfortable.

"If you look at their ages," Nabiki said quietly. "Then they were born less than a year after Ranma vanished. And at the time, I wouldn't think Ranma would be comfortable with even cuddling as a guy, much less doing anything as a girl but flirting."

"You mean..." Ryouga looked more than a little stunned.

Silence held for a long moment before Ryouga spoke again.

"So what's the next move?"

"Wait for her to contact us," Akane said. "I told her I'd pass that along. And don't tell anybody else."

****

Nerima was a small town encircled by a large one and it followed small town rules, even though it was populated by a larger than normal segment of superhuman martial artists that one would think could keep things fairly well to themselves.

But, the problem was that there were individuals as good at rooting out secrets as others were at finding them.

There were fewer now, of course.

People had grown up and, after a long enough time, either forgot Ranma or didn't.

Shampoo and Cologne had left the area in search of Ranma a long time back. One, the other or both occasionally came through Nerima, but the last such time was years ago. Most suspected they spent most of their time helping to secure their village against the possibility of renewed civil war between the two Chinas, but they still occasionally came through.

Mousse was slightly more often seen. Though when he did stop by it seemed more often just to speak to one of the old crew that still lived in the area. He'd at least appeared to mellow over time. Some suspected him of having a lover somewhere in the area and that he had given up on Shampoo, but it was next to impossible to tell.

Kodachi, like Nabiki, had vanished in looking for Ranma. Unlike Nabiki, she hadn't returned. There were rumors she was seen, occasionally, but only rarely and most were unreliable and sheer ridiculous reports. The most absurd being a rather static-filled bit of digital video on the Nerima-Paranormal blog site where she was supposed to appear out of a shadow at a politic rally during an attack by terrorists.

Ukyou and Konatsu kept in touch with Akane, but the Saotome woman lived in Okinawa with Ryuu and her own children, when she wasn't on the water, so the chef rarely had need to come to Nerima and speak with people she was less than friendly with.

Kuno was still unmarried and spending large amounts of money on the search for the "pig-tailed woman." He also had a tendency to harass Ryuu occasionally, especially if Akane was at sea on mission. He was still as twisted as ever, and more dangerous.

Word eventually reached one of these figures about the red-haired visitor to the old Tendo Dojo.

****

Kuno's methods had gotten more sophisticated over time, but that was more because we was hiring people with actual skills to get him his information.

The bug in Kasumi Ono's house had been there a week, and the residents and their guests hadn't yet realized their conversations were being listened to.

Reports and tapes were coming in from the previous few nights surveillance and Kuno was reading them.

"As I feared, the cur dared to steal her very virtue away," Kuno ranted. "And even drive her desires away from the healthy and proper regard for masculine virility. And she still carries his name like some badge of ownership."

He paced up and down his room.

"And still the damnable sorcerer fails to make his appearance," Kuno said.

To add to the irritation, nobody had managed to follow a family of four back to their home.

Still, he had enough money to start searching Tokyo area schools for students of the appropriate name.

Eventually, his minions would find them and then he could move to rescue them from their fates.

****

Ranma walked into the office took in the simple, unpresumptive office in front of her.

There were three people in the room, at least once the secretary passed her and took a seat at the typewriter on the dictation desk. One of the three she recognized, the other two she did not.

One she'd first met in Eastern Europe, she forgot what the name the country was going by that week, and it somewhat explained why they were meeting when they were. He was a rather cheerful sort contrary to what most would have thought of his kind.

In fact, he was how Ranma had started finding regular work as a mystic in the first place. His seal on the message was actually why she had agreed to the meeting.

Of the other two, the secretary was an African woman with religious training judging by her aura, but he wasn't certain of the order. She had physical training as well, and the ring she wore was fairly tell tale mark of just who had given her that training.

"Come in and sit down, Miss Satomi," the chinese man behind the desk said.

The white-haired man stood as the martial artist entered, a masculine sign of respect for a woman that Ranma could have done without, but didn't bother to snuff anymore. The intention was respect, her circumstances were hardly their fault and not something they should be snapped at for.

"Thank you," Ranma said, letting the word hang out in an unvoiced request for a name.

"Zhuge Shen," the man said, bowing.

"Thank you, Zhuge-san," Ranma said, bowing as she moved to sit down as introduced.

"I believe you've already met Mr. Quincey Harker," Shen said, gesturing toward the Eastern European man.

"You could say he helped me on this career path," Ranma noted. "I didn't expect you to follow me out here Quincey."

"I'm only here briefly, Ranma," the man said smiling. "Though it would be good to take in the sights, I don't often get this far East."

Ranma nodded.

"And I'm glad to see Dante's taking on students, too," Ranma said. "I'm guessing there's a gun or two under that typewriter."

"You assume correctly, Miss Satomi," the woman said. "And my name is Bethany."

The red-head looked around the room and could barely resist the itching urge to sarcastically say "A chi master, a vampyr and a demon hunter walk into a bar..."

"The message I had said there was no immediate need and you were going to offer a long-term position," Ranma noted. "Care to elaborate."

"I'm sure you've wondered about the organization that arranges for your missions occasionally," Zhuge-san said.

"It kind of comes with the territory," Ranma said. "Mystical organizations are rarely upfront if they don't know you. And if you don't know them..."

"With that attitude, one wonders why you've worked with us this long," Bethany noted.

"References," Ranma said, looking toward the demon hunter. "This guy's trustworthy."

She jerked her head toward Quincey.

"I'm glad you think so, Ranma," the vampyr noted. "Otherwise I think they might have wasted the air-fare getting me here."

"In any case," Zhuge said. "We've had you under consideration for sometime now, and, given recent events, it has become convenient to offer you a more official position and standing within our group."

"Which recent events are those?" Ranma asked.

"The recent action in Sunan," Zhuge said specifically, bringing Ranma to sit up a bit straighter than she had been.

"And what would you know about that?" Ranma asked.

"Miss Satomi," Zhuge said. "I trust you understand that what I'm about to say is to be kept confidential."

"This sort of stuff usually is, Zhuge-san," Ranma said.

Heck, Ranma's last decade and a half was full of situations that added more to the list of secrets she had to keep to the end. In fact, she herself was basically the same sort of situation for other people meeting her.

"Mithril is our parent organization," Zhuge said.

Ranma blinked and then gave a little chuckle.

"Right hand, this is left hand, what are you doing over there?" she said through snickers.

"Very much the case," the older man said with his own chuckle. "Our group, called Psyche Division, has operated out of the views of the others Mithril divisions for the most part. Though it has since proven necessary to brief Captain Testarossa and her subordinates on the issue."

"And what would you have me do for you?" Ranma asked.

"Our organization is expanding, as are the number of paranormal events of significance," Shen noted.

"Last paranaturalist I talked to said the boiling point to be one percent of the population," Ranma noted. "And I thought we were still down around a quarter of a percent."

"That was in '89, Miss Satomi," her potential client said. "Five years ago, we were at two-thirds of a percent. Estimation is that we'll go over one-percent in two years, and at that time it'll be impossible to hide due to the odds of someone with a gift manifesting in a very public way."

"That's insane," Ranma said. "You'd have to have people being changed by exposure left and right."

"We have our theories," the man said. "Suffice to say we'll share them with you assuming you accept the position we're offering."

"Once again," Ranma said. "No tangents this time, please. What's the position?"

"Regional Operations Coordinator," Zhuge-san said. "You'd be responsible for assessing tasks and selecting resources us here in Japan and Korea. Mr. Harker and myself have been performing such tasks for Europe and East Asia respectively, but the task is getting a bit big for one official to the overall sector."

"Are you sure you have the right person for this job?" Ranma asked. "I've never done much behind a desk."

"There will still be operations that Mithril prefers were kept in house," Shen said with a knowing smile.

"I have to admit that's part of my concern," Ranma said. "But I also don't want to read supicious fires and send some rookie to pick up a pyrokinetic and find a daemon or dragon instead."

"The fact that you are concerned about making that mistake shows a great deal of your worth to hold such a position," the old man noted.

"I also come with my own headaches," Ranma said. "And I'm not sure you'll want those at the door."

"Mysticism is an inherently polar occupation, Miss Satomi," Shen said. "We could not get to be as powerful as we are without taking sides between the selfish and selfless."

"Not good and evil?" Ranma asked.

"Come now, Ranma," Quincey said. "I'm sure you agree, almost nobody chooses evil. They just choose what they think helps themselves the most."

There was a moment of silence as Ranma thought over her response.

"I'll have to consider this," Ranma said seriously, mouth firm. "If you can give me the salary information and such, I should be able to give you an answer soon."

"I understand," the man said. "If it helps, you would be working quite often with Captain Testarossa as she is head of Fleet Operations in the West Pacific and is now briefed on our existence."

"Thanks," Ranma said. "The Captain's a good kid if I remember right. In the mean time I still have to think about it."

She stood up and noticed all the men standing up with her with a sigh. Then came the hand shakes and bows before she stepped outside.

****

Sengen watched from her table as various beings passed by on business or just relaxing.

What she saw left her having to heavily resist the urge to curl her lip in disgust.

Though, perhaps, her attitude was not so unnoticed as she thought.

"Is something troubling you?" a voice asked.

Sengen, the Japanese guardian of the well of eternal life, turned and found the elegant form of Hecate there. Sengen looked about cautiously before answering.

"I am troubled by what I see here," Sengen said.

Hecate sat down and looked around at the landscape of heaven.

"I see a normal day of business," she noted.

"Business," Sengen repeated. "Business. That is the problem. No, that is only part of the problem. There was a time when we did not conduct business, there was a time when we ruled this tiny world and the specs within it. We were lords and ladies, and not mere...salarymen and office ladies."

Hecate kept her smile hidden as she considered her answer carefully.

"My dear, you think things are not as they should be?" Hecate asked.

"Look over across the way and what do you see?" Sengen asked.

The goddess of night and vengeance looked across and saw two women and a man. One of the women had the marks of a goddess and the man across from her bore the jagged scar-like facial marks of a demon. The second woman bore neither such mark.

"I see Kali, Raijin and Diao Chan eating lunch," Hecate noted.

"And would you be able to tell which was God, which was Demon and which was Human, if it weren't for the marks?" the goddess of eternal life asked.

"Raijin's nails are sharp, and he does have fangs," the goddess of night noted. "And Kali's features are more slender and longer than Diao Chan's, if only slightly."

"Minor details," Sengen noted. "Four...even two thousand years ago demons were raw, blatant creatures and gods were truly the most elegant and ethereal of beings. And humans were hairless apes with bare concepts of culture. Now, they are almost identical."

"We gave words to the mortals and art and science and everything," Sengen noted. "But now we call ourselves by their terms. God, Demon, Heaven, Hell. What happened to our language."

"Perhaps, but humans are not immortal," Hecate noted.

"And what good is immortality if you don't make use of it?" Sengen asked, pointing in another direction.

Hecate followed the direction of the goddess's finger and caught sight of Athena, dressed for the moment in her military dress uniform, talking to her brother Ares, dressed in combat fatigues, accentuated by mediavel style armor pieces, and probably coming off of the practice fields of Valhalla. Ares was much more animated than his sister's cool behavior, but it was clear they were both keeping their tempers.

"I see Ares and Athena arguing campaign logistics again," Hecate noted.

"When first I met Ares, thousands of years previous," Sengen said. "His opinion of arguing involved the point of a sword. He would not listen to the idea of mere woman, even his sister who defeated him so often."

The Japanese goddess continued.

"Athena once cursed a woman into becoming a spider for daring to surpass the gods in the crafts," she said. "And yet she's now dressed in the manner of a human military officer, following their fashions."

"Those are not the Ares and Athena I first met before the realms were merged into two," Sengen said.

"They both entered new incarnations around the end of World War II," Hecate noted. "To better fit into and understand the changing world."

"And grew up on Earth with only limited access to their past memories," Sengen noted. "They might as well have been born completely over again. Is the only difference between us and the mortals that we keep our youthful appearance and power and choose when to start another life? In fact, their sister Eris died, completely. Reborn as humans are reborn, lost, soul untraceable by Yggdrasil. She could have come back as a Norse, or a demon...or even a human."

The last was said with a trace of disgust.

"And to make matters worse," Sengen said. "Some of us and some of the demons have started talking about a 'creator' like some human monotheist. As if there can be something greater than us. Our ancestors made sure we were the greatest beings that could possibly exist. And we throw it aside."

"So, when was the last time you entered a new incarnation?" Hecate asked.

"Fifteen hundred years ago," Sengen said. "And for that, I'm sidelined and given a pointless task. When was the last time a security worker like you entered a new incarnation?"

"Thirty four thousand five hundred sixty two years ago," Hecate said idly.

Sengen froze and stared at the other goddess sitting there calmly in front of her.

"Do you just complain?" Hecate asked quietly.

****

Eija wasn't home yet when Ranma got back from her meeting, but she could hear Deimosu and Naiki sparring as she walked into the door.

"I'm home," Ranma called out.

"Good, someone who can cook," Naiki called out.

Ranma noted as Deimosu responded to his sister, by simply knocking her feet out from under her while she was distracted. The lack of verbal response concerned the red-headed martial artist.

It looked like she needed to speak to more than one child today or tomorrow.

"Naiki, when you get up off the floor I need to talk to you," Ranma said. "In the kitchen since you're apparently hungry. Deimosu, clean things up a bit."

Her tone of voice said that she was going to want to talk to him too in a little bit, but for the moment he was clear. Groaning at the unfairness of the attention, Naiki stood up and shuffled over to the kitchen.

"You're not in trouble, Naiki," Ranma said. "So quit dragging your feet like an untrained brat."

"Hai, 'Kaasan," Naiki said, picking up her walk and moving into the kitchen as Ranma started getting food made for their dinner that night.

"You have a new homeroom teacher, right?" Ranma asked. "'Hot blonde woman in heels'?"

"Yeah," Naiki said.

Ranma leaned over quietly, making sure Deimosu was far enough away not to here.

"Is this the teacher you stayed after school to talk to?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah..." Naiki said. "It was about a history assignment she gave us."

"What's the assignment?" Ranma asked.

"Let's see...we're supposed to compare two 'tyrants' from history," Naiki said. "And decide if they helped their country and just have a bad reputation, or if they were really evil people that ruined their nation."

Ranma nodded at the assignment, though something about it tweaked something in the back of her mind.

"And who were you thinking of doing?" Ranma asked.

"Ummm, one had to be Japanese, so Tokugawa and...Hitler?" Naiki said.

"Hitler's easy," Ranma said.

"Who would you choose?" Naiki asked.

"Hitler," Ranma said. "History isn't something I'm usually interested in and Hitler's easy."

Naiki smirked.

"I'm going to want to meet this teacher," Ranma said. "What was her name?"

"Geisthexe-san," Naiki said.

"Okay," Ranma said. "And let's make this clear. You are a virgin, and you stay a virgin until you're twenty."

Naiki started to open her mouth.

"And that includes other girls and women," Ranma said quietly but forcefully.

"I wasn't thinking that..." Naiki said, flushing. "Besides, I think she's straight."

Ranma's narrowed eye look was enough to make Naiki realize that the last comment was certainly proof that she was having thoughts in that direction.

"Four years, Naiki," Ranma said. "That's it. I'd like longer, but that's minimum. I sure as hell don't want to hear you're dating one of your teachers."

"And how old were you when you had us?" Naiki asked loudly, and immediately regretted as her mother stopped cutting and prepping food, turning very quiet. "'Kaasan is...something wrong?"

"That's something I'll have to talk about when all three of you are listening," Ranma said, turning to give her daughter a confident smile to encourage her in thinking everything was fine. "Go set the table."

As the green-haired girl started to walk away from her mother, her brother stepped in front of her, looking a bit upset himself.

"What did you ask that for?" he demanded of his confused sister.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay!" Naiki said, pulling away from her brother.

"Deimosu," Ranma said turning around and calling her son over before he could pursue the argument. She waited for him to come into the kitchen before continuing. "What she said was out of line, but it's not your place to snap at her."

"Yes, Okaasan," Deimosu said reluctantly.

"Now, what's wrong with you?" she asked. "You've been grumpy since yesterday."

Deimosu wanted to say that he had heard the conversation between his mother and Akane, but if he did that, she'd instruct him not to do anything.

"I'm not sure I like Eija hanging out with those people," he said finally.

Ranma seemed to visibly relax.

"I thought you gave up your grudge against Sousuke," the red-head said.

"They already blew her up once," Deimosu reminded his mother.

"And if soldier-boy got them both out of Korea safe and sound," Ranma said. "I'm sure he can get them safely out of Akihabara. Anyway, I think all of you have blown each other up at least once."

Deimosu reluctantly nodded.

"Is there anything else you need to talk to me about?" Ranma asked, probingly.

"No, that's about it," the blonde said.

"Then stop pestering Naiki," Ranma said with a smirk. "We don't want to be doing earthquake repairs on the house."

"I heard that!" Naiki called out.

****

"You live in a warehouse?" Kaname said, taking in the building and surrounding field where they were dropping Eija off.

"We've been doing a lot of work to convert it," Eija said.

"It is a very good location," Sousuke noted. "I almost did not realize that there was another building here. The outer wall is in good repair. It seems very secure, though with only four people to hold it..."

"Well, Okaasan is mostly worried about training space," Eija said. "Would you like to come in?"

"Sure, why not?" Kaname said, shrugging.

Inside, the building was a lot more like a normal home, if somewhat lacking in decoration. Or at least normal decoration, looking past the front room with the TV, Kaname saw all sorts of medieval weaponry hanging on the walls.

Axes, spears, staves, swords, all artfully displayed, but in such a way as to be easily accessible to the residents.

At the moment Naiki was running a rather energetic kata that looked familiar. It was a moment before she recognized a motion from the fight in Korea. Only this time as she flung out her arms, there were no cresent shaped blades of force coming out from her.

"Girls, Soldier-boy," Miss Satomi said as she came into the front room, wiping her hands clean with a towel. "A bit later than you told me you'd be."

"There was an traffic accident," Sousuke said. "The situation called for us to provide aid to the victims."

"Okay," Ranma said. "I hope you had some fun before that."

She looked at the bags of purchases, including the large easel and sketch pad being carried under Eija's arms somewhat cumbersomely.

"It was interesting," Eija said. "Like the bazaars in Turkey. I'm going to put this in the library, okay?"

"That's fine, I guess," Ranma said, not voicing the thought that it was just another twenty feet down to the door to Eija's room. "Go ahead and sit down, do you want anything to drink?"

"Err, we're under aged," Kaname noted.

"And I don't drink alochol," the red-head replied. "Fruit juice? Water? Power drink? Tea?"

"Sure, juice is fine," Kaname said.

"I wouldn't mind a bottled water," Sousuke noted.

Nodding, Ranma walked into the kitchen and came out with two bottles of water and a glass of fruit juice.

"Pig-tails wasn't with you?" Ranma asked.

"She had a family thing to do tonight," Kaname said. "We'll have to go back with her for a full day sometime."

Ranma looked over her shoulder towards the other rooms and then leaned forward toward the other two.

"Thanks, by the way," Ranma said, winking knowingly as Eija started coming back into the room.

"We're going to need to make some more ritual candles, Okaasan," Eija said. "We're down to about fifteen."

"I thought sure we had more than that," Ranma said, frowning as she sat down.

"And there's something else," Eija said. "We weren't alone in helping at that car accident, there was a woman there."

"Yeah," Kaname said. "Come to think of it, she was doing the same sort of stuff you could, Eija."

"There was?" Ranma sitting up.

"She was very helpful," Sousuke confirmed. "Her boyfriend also demonstrated exceptional knowledge of engineering that was useful in freeing trapped motorists."

"She was immortal," Eija said, drawing looks from Kaname and Sousuke.

"I don't know about that," Kaname noted. "She didn't look that tough."

"Marks on her forehead and cheeks?" Ranma asked sourly.

"Now that you mention it," the blue haired girl said, thinking. "A light blue sliver, I think, like dart."

"That is so," Sousuke confirmed. "Is that a familiar description, Miss Satomi?"

"Her hair?" Ranma asked.

"Brown, I think," Eija said. "Maybe grey or silver. What's going on?"

"Sounds like not the same woman," Ranma thought to herself. "But then there are spells for disguise."

"Okaasan?" Eija asked again.

"Probably nothing," Ranma said. "Think you can find her again?"

"Yes, ma'am," Sousuke said. "She gave us her address in Nekomi. I believe she invited us to come visit her at anytime."

That settled it for Ranma.

She knew she'd been feeling something familiar when she'd walked through there scouting for homes a few months back.

"Sounds interesting," Ranma said. "I'll have to meet this woman."

"Well, anyway," Kaname said with an exasperated sigh. "I'm going to go back into the world at large where words like 'immortal' are things you hear on an anime or movie."

"You get used to it eventually," Ranma said with a knowing smile.

****

Ranma felt a twinge of concern as she left her home some days later, her children already well into their first classes by this time.

She always felt that twinge.

When she went on a job that looked like it might be dangerous.

When they left for school.

It was worse after a situation like the Sunan hijacking when things came so close to a final conclusion.

Especially when she considered her task this day.

Still, her kids were well past the point that they needed her for every situation that appeared.

Something she also had to remind herself of everytime.

****

The Kindly Ones' Roost was easy to find.

Very easy, despite how it seemed to lie in an out of the way place on the edge of town.

In fact, Deimosu had to say it almost felt like he was being drawn to the place.

As if it wanted him to find it.

There were places and people that did that, and they were rarely good places or people.

And, growing up in Greece and hearing the old tales, he knew who the Kindly Ones were supposed to be.

Walking up to the door, he opened it to find inside, not the bar he was expecting, but something like a curio shop.

"Well, come in, young man," a feminine voice said invitingly.

Looking in through the darkness, he saw a face lean forward. A woman's face seeming young, but with jagged red marks on her forehead and cheek. She smiled and revealed sharp teeth as she did so.

"We've been waiting for you," the woman said.

****

Kuno looked down the road at Jindai High School, somewhere in the region of this establishment of mediocre public education was one of his loves dwelling within a shameful secrecy to hide the crime committed upon her more than a decade and a half previously.

Somewhere within here where the children of that accursed union seeking the rescue by and guidance by a proper man of true and glorious samurai blood.

He would find one or all of them and they would be gloriously happy to have their unnatural shackles set loose and they would lead him to their mother and her captor.

He had pictures of the children: two daughters that shared their mothers beauty, otherwordly in one case and wild in another. The third child was a boy, probably as much a coward and cur as his father for surely the foul one would have taken the boy in to become everything he was.

Walking along the grounds he caught first sight of one of the girls on the athletics field.

****

Sitting at what should have been a distance, wrapped in a cloak of unimportance, a blonde woman sneered at the human taking in her objective. She didn't have to look hard to see the gulf of skill and power between the two.

The man would be a challenge for Naiki, but she should win.

The question was what she would do next.

Still, first, she had to make sure the two were interrupted. Not an undaunting prospect. Disguising her own presence from three demi-gods and a chi-master was one thing.

Hiding the battle that was about to come, that would take a bit more concentration.

If all of them were around.

Ranma Satomi was leaving the area on some errand or another, Mara didn't know what, and she didn't care what, as long as it kept the woman out of the area.

Likewise, Deimos Satomi was playing hookie for some reason.

Again, Mara neither knew nor cared what.

Deimosu wasn't her task.

That left only Eija Satomi on hand to interfere. According to the file, a first rate magician for a mortal, but hampered by the fact she was a hidden file.

"Well, your sister might feel this, Naiki," she whispered as the magical circle she was sitting on started to flair quietly into life. "But she won't know what it is, have fun."

****

Naiki blinked as the gym teacher walked past her ignoring the fact that she was performing katas instead of the instructed exercises. She blinked and rubbed her head for a moment.

"Did he not see me?" she asked. "Usually he pitches a fit for me ignoring his stupid little exercises."

"You there, girl," a voice said.

She turned around to see an old man, well, to her mind old, watching her and gesturing with a bokken past the wire fence.

"Eh, what do you want?" she asked, still confused by what was going on.

"Are you perhaps the daughter of that accursed sorcerer Ranma Saotome," he demanded.

Growling and gritting her sharp teeth, Naiki vaulted over the fence and landed in front of the man.

"What did you call my mother?" she demanded, the last name was a bit off, but maybe the guy was just an idiot.

"I have not mentioned your glorious mother, who is obviously the pig-tailed girl," Kuno said. "I spoke of that horrid caster of curses and spells that is Ranma Saotome."

"All right, idiot or not," Naiki said. "I can't let that pass."

"Then you think to face Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Nerima Ward?" Kuno said. "Truly the spells of your odious parent are wrought strongly upon you. Well then, I must fight to free you from these supernatural delusions."

That said, Kuno lashed outward with his sword, noting with misplaced pride as the girl dodged under it so adroitly and move inside the reach of his weapon, moving to tear his arms open and slam a powerful kick through the eliminated defense.

Kuno barely dodged aside, using all of his accumulated years of experience in what he considered battle to step aside of the blow and slash downwards almost catching the over-extended girl on the shoulder.

Backing away, he unleashed a stream of high speed stabs which pierced outward to pummel the girl, oh how reluctantly he did so. Rents appeared in her gym clothes, exposing her young flesh to casual examination, but her skin did barely more than bruise.

A vacuum blade slashed inward and Kuno barely dodged out of its path, only to have his feet swept out from under him. He barely rolled out of the path of the follow-up hit, but was already on the defensive as Naiki pressed him.

Every exchange, his mistakes got bigger and he paid a higher price for them. It was inevitable that he should fall wholy, lying unable to move a muscle and only barely conscious in front of Naiki, breathing hard and still twitching made, but having hardly more than light bruising from the exchange.

Ranma, had she been there, would have remarked that Kuno had gotten better, but still would have been surprised that Naiki was out of breath after such an exchange.

That is, unless she knew that Naiki's breathlessness had more to do with decisions than physical conditioning.

She analyzing the fight and considering that this man might just approach her sister in the same way.

Geisthexe-san's history assignment stuck in her mind, and Naiki wondered if she was looking at the proverbial chance to kill Hitler right now, if just on a personal note.

Had the guy died in the heat of combat, that would have been one thing. Naiki's first battle kill had come when she was ten, the youngest of all three of the Satomi kids.

However, her mother had always been firm that death should only be dealt at need and never on a captured or defeated foe.

Despite that, as Naiki kneeled down next to him, hand clenched in a fist at her side. Had he been able to talk, Kuno would have made an obscene comment that might have ended his life.

Finally, Naiki slammed her fist down into the ground at Kuno's head.

After a small ground tremor, the sharkish girl stood up, vaulted back over the fence and started to rejoin her classmates on the way inside the main building.

****

"Not quite there yet," Mara said approvingly. "But getting closer. Well, this lesson isn't over yet."

As she spoke the obscurement around the fight faded away and Naiki's incompetent PE teacher was finally able to find her.

****

Kaname and Kyoko noticed as Eija stood up and walked over to the window, frowning.

"Is something wrong?" Kyoko asked.

"I don't know," Eija said. "I just feel a bit...excuse me, I need to check something."

Sousuke and Kaname glanced at each other cautiously for a moment as Eija walked out of the room, where most of the students were currently relaxing in a "study period".

Kaname shrugged, but stood up to follow the girl, Sousuke predictably moving with her.

****

Ranma felt and saw the power imbedded in the very walls of the temple as she approached. And it was definitely the same sort of power that haunted her fuzzy memories of that day and night so long ago.

Taking a deep breath, and wrapping herself in the umisenken's ultimate technique, she started to walk up the path toward the housing portion of the temple.

"Damn," a male voice said from around the back. "I can't seem to make it work at less than half-sized."

"That's better than our power efficiency," a female voice said.

"I'm not giving up yet!" a younger female voice declared. "That bastard and his Red Daikons are going to go down!"

"If we had more money we could afford to do a full-sized unit," another woman noted. "With all the effort we're making in miniaturizing things, you'd think we're spending that anyway."

"Yeah, but its being spent in time, not money," the man said again.

"Does anybody want lemonade," another woman's voice asked.

Following the voices, as it was apparent the residents were in the back of the grounds rather than in the house. Ranma cautiously stepped around the building, wrapped in the umisen cloak.

What she found were three humans and two non-humans working about at marking blueprints and tooling with various machines and engine pieces. One of the non-humans, matching the description she had of this Belldandy person, was walking about serving glasses of lemonade to everyone present.

The youngest seeming of the bunch was one of the non-humans, who seemed to be about the same age as Ranma's children, if not a year or two younger. The others were in their early to late twenties.

"Aren't you guys ready for the software yet?" a sixth voice demanded. "I can't really do any programming on how to run a theoretical mecha."

"Who said you're programming anything?" the teen-aged non-human declared pointing at a tall, dark skinned woman out on the porch.

This third was a third non-human, though was also not wholy the same as the other two women.

"Who's better to do the programming, squirt?" the new woman asked. "A lowly bug-hunter or a full-accredited sysop?"

"Who's been suspended too many times to count," the youngest said.

"Where do they work again?" one of the two human women asked the man. She was the oldest person there by maybe five years.

"I think it's a family-owned software company," the young man said with a trace of nervousness on his face. "Anyway, Megumi's going to be doing the main programming."

"But...why?" the youngest asked. "Keiichi, you know I'm the best robotics expert here!"

"She can do it," the other woman, apparently "Megumi", said shrugging as if she really didn't mind one way or another. "I'm fine with that."

"If either Skuld or Urd programs the thing, it'll likely be overboard," the oldest woman said. "And Megumi's the only other one here with robotics experience, so that's obvious. But the entire thing is moot if we don't get off our asses and work on these miniaturization problems."

Comforted that these were likely not the same spirits that had troubled her previously, all Ranma had to do now was see what they were here for.

Casually, she reached out with an arm and knocked on the wall next to her at the same time as she dropped the umisenken's ultimate technique.

Six people turned around to face with shocked expressions, well mostly, one of the non-humans seemed to be less than alarmed, even if she was surprised.

"Oh, we have a visitor," Belldandy said in a friendly manner. "What can we do for you?"

"I think you met my daughter and her friends a few days ago," Ranma said. "Eija Satomi."

"Oh yes," Belldandy said nodding. "If you can join Urd and I inside, maybe we can discuss this."

"Is everything okay?" Megumi asked.

Keiichi looked up to Belldandy and saw her nod.

"Yeah, everything's fine," Keiichi assured her. "Boss, why don't you and I switch components, maybe if we start on something new we'll clear our heads."

Ranma watched the four continue their project as she followed Belldandy and a confused looking dark-skinned woman, the apparent "Urd", into the building.

Having trained in Stav fairly extensively, Ranma couldn't help but recognize the names Skuld and Urd from Norse myth. With that she was able to go backwards from Belldandy to Verdandi.

Norse goddesses.

If that's what they were, then the spirits that attacked her, were they also goddesses?

"What's going on out there?" Ranma asked out of curiousity.

"The captain of the Nerima Red Dragons, called them armchair engineers," Urd explained.

"Red dragons?" Ranma repeated, confused as he noted laundry strung up in the side yard through another opening in the temple.

"JSDF competitive AS team," Belldandy finished. "In any caseI'm pleased to meet you Satomi-san, I did not know there were any other companions n..."

"I'm really not fond of that term," Ranma said, cutting Belldandy off.

"What, companion?" Urd asked. "What's the problem with that?"

"Because companion is what Keiichi is," a new voice declared, and Ranma and two goddesses turned to see the leather garbed figure of Morrigan walking of the laundry lines. "And Saotome-san's relationship was decidedly less pleasant, or willing."

Behind the woman, one of the bed sheets seemed to be splattered in blood for a moment before the red washed away.

"Oh, Morrigan," Belldandy said in surprise and confusion. "But you..."

Belldandy and Urd turned to look at Ranma who was in stance already, ready to fight against the woman that had just joined them. A red-headed woman who felt as bloody as Belldandy felt peaceful.

"So who are you lady, and why are you here?" Ranma demanded.

"I'm here to talk to you, Ranma Saotome," Morrigan said.

That was all the other red-head needed to hear to make a decision.

Ranma was across the room and moving to slam into Morrigan, pulling the other red-head out of the house into the grounds outside.

The celtic war-goddess blinked in surprise but took control of the roll swiftly, disengaging from Ranma and tossing her aside, over the wall of the temple and following.

As the red-headed goddess leaped the wall, she found Ranma's foot filling up her vision and sending her bouncing down the street.

Out and away from structures, both woman started fighting in earnest, the irritation on Morrigan's face starting to give way to a fierce grin as the patron of the baensidhe let loose with a piercing yell that shattered glass around her and momentarily put Ranma on the defensive.

****

"What was that?" Chihiro asked as the fight, now some blocks away, turned audible to the engineers.

"Maybe a jet did a sonic boom over the wrong air space," Keiichi suggested.

"Gah, hope they get tarred and feathered for it," the older woman said. "Almost broke this component."

****

Morrigan had the advantage as Belldandy and Urd caught up, but the fight was quickly turned around with a call of Hiryu Shoten Ha and even the limited amount of power the first class goddess was using roared to life into a short-lived tornado that had catapulted the woman into the air where Ranma intercepted her.

Both hit the ground into a roll as Morrigan found herself being pushed back by the blows Ranma was choosing. Still, the red-headed human was just that, human, and Morrigan wasn't especially worried just yet.

Even when the woman slammed her to the ground with a sweep and was instantly straddling the leather-clad darkness.

"Saoto...Satomi-san, wait!" Belldandy shouted, moving to grab hold of Ranma's hand as she started channelling chi. "She's an Eye of Ra!"

"What do I care what she is?" Ranma demanded.

"It means she's an investigator," Urd said, coming on the other side. "She solves heavenly crimes."

Ranma paused and took that into consideration.

"You're a cop?" she asked.

"That's a way to put it," Morrigan said.

"And why the hell didn't you say anything?" Ranma demanded.

"Because I haven't had a simple rumble in a long time," the other red-head said.

****

Morrigan frowned thoughtfully as she sat across from Ranma Saotome, now Satomi.

Things were much worse than she had suspected.

"I knew Zeus was involved," she said. "He's always been a bastard, and Poseiden has always done his best to beat Zeus at his own game, so that's not much of a surprise. But the last...one of your daughter's she has a dark aura, what are her gifts?"

"Belldandy said she was a death seer," Urd said from the door, as Ranma started to clam up.

"Hecate," Morrigan growled.

****

Deimosu walked cautiously into the room, wincing as the doors shut closed behind them of their own accord.

"Come," the woman that spoken already said. "Sit. Join my sisters and I. You've come for information and are ready to give it."

"Are you really..." Deimosu whispered as he sat at the table with the woman and watched as two more came to sit at the table. In the shadows, it seemed as if dark wings extended from their backs in the shadows.

"The Eumenides," one said.

"The Semnai," another noted.

"The Erinyes," the first said finally.

"Yes, that is us," they all three said. "And you have come to us, God-spawn, to hear what we know."

"Me, Alecto," the first noted.

"Myself, Megaera," another noted.

"I, Tisiphone," the last said.

"You know about...my mother?" Deimosu asked. "And what happened to her?"

"Three beings," Alecto noted. "Had a disagreement as to whose bloodline was the strongest."

"A bet was made," Megaera continued. "With the winner being owed favors by the losers."

"And for that bet," Tisiphone finished. "A woman was found capable of bearing heroes."

Deimosu felt the anger in his soul rising as the circumstances were given to him.

"A bet?" he snarled, standing up and crackling with power. "They raped my mother over a bet...to see who's children were strongest?"

"Never before has the same woman born the children of three gods," Alecto said.

"Much less doing so over the same time," Megaera commented.

"Her survival is most impressive," Tisiphone noted.

"Your mother is truly strong for a mere human," the three demonesses said, and Deimosu could hear the trace of disgust they had for "mere" humans.

"Who was it?" Deimosu demanded.

The Erinyes smiled as they started to answer.

"One child is from the line of Zeus," Alecto noted. "Bearing his thunderous power."

"One child is from the line of Poseiden," Megaera added. "And carries the wildness of the shark."

"One child is from the line of Hades," Tisiphone finished. "And is steeped in death's embrace."

"If you've known this, why haven't you done anything?" Deimosu demanded. "Don't you avenge crimes like this?"

"These gods are strong," the furies said together. "Stronger than we three demons."

"And what about the other Gods?" Deimosu demanded. "What are they doing?"

"They do not know," Alecto said. "The crime and its children are hidden from Heaven's eyes."

"They seek and suspect," Megaera added. "But evidence escapes them."

"And when they find," Tisiphone said. "Millenia in Tartarus, alone and imprisoned. Will the punishment be."

"That's weak," Deimosu said. "If it were me, I would kill them. Will the demons help me with that?"

"That cannot be," Alecto said, shaking her head sadly. "The war between Gods and Demons is over."

"The peace is kept by the doublet system," Megaera added. "If a God does die, then so might a Demon. And the reverse is also true."

"No God or Demon knows if they are a part of the system," all three added. "And now Gods and Demons intermix. If you kill a criminal, you may also kill..."

"A friend..."

"A sibling..."

"A parent..."

"A lover..."

"A child..."

"To kill the guilty Gods," they all three said. "And spare the innocent. First must you destroy the record of hostages."

"And how do I do that?" Deimosu asked.

"There is one that you might seek out," Alecto said.

"A patron of Vengeance like us," Megaera ascertained.

"But born of Gods not Demons," Tisiphone added.

"In the east you will find her," they chorused. "Hidden in the Titan's shadow. Hecate of the Night, whose mother is also tainted by the Line of Hades."


	10. Forks in the Path

"I believe she went this way," Sousuke said pointing.

"If we don't find her soon, we'll be late getting back to class," Kaname noted.

"It is not a large area," Sousuke said. "We'll find her well before the period ends and be back in class. It is not a problem."

"And what if she does that disappearing trick of hers?" Kaname asked, arching an eyebrow and crossing her arms.

"There is no reason for her to do so," Sousuke said. "If there were, she would have warned us that there was something to be concerned about."

"That's true," Kaname said. "She's not one for acting thoughtlessly unlike some people."

The playful jibe went over Sousuke's head and Kaname shook her head, wondering why she even bothered. Their progress along the line that Sousuke was certain Eija had taken was cut short as the light-haired and white-clothed form of Atsunobu Hayashimizu came into view and noticed them.

"Ahh, Miss Chidori and Mr. Sagara, just who I needed to see," he said casually snapping his fan closed.

"Uhh, Hayashimizu-sempai," Kaname said. "We were sort of looking for someone."

"Oh, and who was that?" the class president asked as Ren Mikihara appeared at his side as usual.

"Eija Satomi wandered out of class during study period," Sousuke informed him. "She appeared distracted. We are therefore concerned that there was something wrong."

"Well, I am certain that Miss Satomi is capable of taking care of herself," Hayashimizu said. "In the meantime, we have an issue with the upcoming basketball tournament..."

Ren produced a note and handed it over to the two.

"We must discuss this immediately," Hayashimizu said, turning about and inviting no argument.

Misgivings for once shared with Sousuke, Kaname sighed reluctantly in counterpoint to the mercenary's frustrated growling.

"As you wish, your excellency," Sousuke said with a crisp salute.

"Let's get this over with," Kaname said by way of agreement.

Something told her they had more important things to take care of.

****

"This isn't going to be too useful," Mara grumbled as she looked into the smoke and shook her head. "That girl is going to see what's happening and then the soldier will be off to the rescue."

She grimaced and at least consoled herself that Naiki had considered taking out that freak. She did one more general sweep of the area, continuing to focus subtly through the circles she'd established in the athletics field.

The demoness blinked as her scry focused in on a scene at the apartment complex nearby. A teenager with white hair in an austere dress half-dragged an unconscious young man into that Sagara's apartment complex.

The girl had a small gun and was looking about cautiously, almost desperately. Mara's spell could detect the energy of the transmitter in the boy's arm and it seemed obvious to the demoness that someone would be coming for the boy and the girl soon.

And they would be expecting Sagara when the school let out, but, if things happened as she expected, Sagara and Kaname would be off after that psychotic with the stick. In that case, help wouldn't come to her until too late.

Mara smirked.

She had something to use after all.

****

Naiki was walking toward her classroom when she saw Geisthexe-san leaning against the wall outside the teacher's lounge.

"Satomi-chan," the woman said seriously. "I need to have a word with you."

"Umm, sure teach," Naiki said. Next class was science anyway, that was fairly boring. "What do you need?"

"Follow me, kid," Mara said, gesturing for Naiki to join her.

Shrugging, Naiki looked around and moved to catch up to Mara.

"So are you dragging me up to a seculded spot, Geisthexe-san," Naiki asked teasingly.

Mara groaned and shook her head.

"There's a couple things you need to see," the demoness noted, ignoring the flirtiness of the girl as she led Naiki up to the rooftop.

****

The odd feeling that something was going on had faded, but Eija already knew which direction it had been. Following that memory she came to the athletic fields and, looking about almost thought that she was imagining things.

As she was turning back toward the school, however, a strained voice carried up to her.

"I...fight on," a fatigued voice called out.

Jumping over the fence, she made her way over to older man that was struggling to his feet.

"Sir, you should stay down," Eija said.

****

Naiki gritted her teeth as she watched Eija lean over the pervert from earlier and try to attend to the minor injuries she had given him.

Then the bokken freak was moving and Eija only barely noticed in time to put up a defense. Still, Eija was caught by surprise and off-balance and didn't have either Naiki's aggressive nature nor Deimosu's technical mastery.

That freak had her unconscious in only a few exchanges.

"Damn it!" Naiki snapped starting to move to leap down to go to her sister's rescue, but stopped as her teacher's hand snapped out to block her path.

"No need," Mara said pointing down.

As the woman pointed, one of the windows exploded outward and Naiki saw Sousuke Sagara rapelling down the wall and taking off after the man carrying Eija, what looked like a shotgun in hand. Behind him, Kaname was, a lot less gracefully, following down the rope and shouting at Sousuke to be careful.

"The need is over there," the blonde woman said, pointing in a completely different direction.

Waving her hands in a circular manner, Naiki blinked as a cloud of smoke formed and within it the scene showed the cute girl that commanded the sub they had ridden home in. She was hiding in an apartment with only the barest of furniture and a lot of equipment.

She was obviously scared and nervous, between the gun and the unconscious boy she had in handcuffs with her.

"It's going to take Sagara and Chidori a long time to run down that psychopath and beat him down," Mara noted. "By that time..." her other hand circled and a second smoke circle showed a truck full of dangerous looking men came obvious. "These men will find little Captain Testarossa and there'll be no Sagara around to save her. And that's because he's chasing a threat that someone else didn't finish off."

Naiki flinched.

"Now, I'm a 1st class demoness," Mara said, enjoying the look of surprise on Naiki's face.

"De...demoness?" Naiki said getting into a stance.

"Details on that later," Mara said. "Now the question is, do you want me to clean up your mess here? Or are you going to do something about it yourself?"

With a brief gesture, the smoke trailed off into the distance pointing the direction toward what Naiki assumed was the apartment the white-haired Captain was at.

"I'll handle it," Naiki said firmly. Sousuke had protected Eija in Korea, he could do it again here.

"Good," Mara said. "Go get them kid, we'll talk a little bit later."

****

Kuno regarded his brilliance with pride as he carried the one girl he'd managed to rescue onto the train with him. There was no way that the damnable sorcerer would expect him, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan-cho, to travel by such a plebian manner.

Indeed, it was likely the fact that he had come in this manner rather than by limosine that the sorcerer was lax enough that he had managed to recover even one of the three girls and women he'd come to rescue.

"You there, put down the girl!" a voice declared and Kuno turned to see a man in official outfit bearing a baton. Obviously a corrupted member of the local constabulary.

"Truly the hands of the foul one extend far into the belly of the realm," Kuno declared as he shifted the wait in his arms so to bring his bokken to bare.

****

"Sousuke! Wait up," Kaname shouted as she jumped onto the train at the last moment before it sped off down the tracks.

"Miss Chidori," Sousuke said. "You should stay back, this is going to get dangerous."

"Listen, I might not know anything about arm slaves or spells and magic and stuff like that," Kaname said, unaware of the full irony of the statement given that as a Whispered, she had access to more knowledge on some things like that than most people. "But I know about perverts and beating on them. And if you're busy fighting the jerk who's going to be getting Eija out of the area? Huh? So you just take care of the fighting and I'll back you up."

"Just stay back out of the way," Sousuke said as he pushed forward through the unoccupied back car. "The enemy showed that he is a cowardly sort using all manner of dirty tricks. I doubt he would have been able to capture Eija so quickly if he hadn't been posing as an injured man like you said."

When they came into the next car, the sparkling of three o'clock transit passengers backed away in shock on seeing a teenager burst through with what looked like a shotgun in hand.

"This is not a problem," Sousuke said. "I'm Jindai High's Student Security Chief. This is official business."

"Don't mind him," Kaname said nervously. "It's just a paintball gun, really. Not a problem."

They were passing through another car when they heard the sound of struggle up ahead.

"There's the target," Sousuke said, pushing through to the next car and watching Kuno dispatch a uniformed police officer.

Kaname ducked aside one of the doors as she heard the shotgun fire off two of the stun rounds. Peeking around the corner she saw the man with the bokken bat both of the large rounds away.

The bokken wielding swordsman lay down his prisoner behind him as he blocked the shots and stabbed forward in rapid fire strikes that pushed the air forward into invisible projectiles.

Sousuke was taken surprise by the first volley and slammed into the wall of the subway train, vacated by a number of civilians. He felt a number of injuries as he rolled foward and fired again, but nothing he couldn't deal with.

This time, his stun round impacted the older man on the shoulder spinning him backwards. He took the opportunity to load his shotgun with more stun shells as his enemy recovered.

Kuno turned about to swing his bokken and had to interrupt the attack in order to dodge aside from the first of Sousuke's shots. His counterattack swung down downward and was intercepted by the shaft of Sousuke's gun, which fired almost the same instant.

The last stun round slammed into Kuno's face throwing him off his feet even as the bokken slashed through the shotgun and Sousuke dodged out of the way.

Drawing a knife, Sousuke leapt forward pushing the swordsman back further into the car.

Kaname watched as the mercenary pushed forward, noticing that Eija was now behind Sousuke and the way to her was clear.

Darting forward as Sousuke and Kuno continued to fight, Kaname shook Eija lightly before picking up the small girl and running back out of the car where the fight was going on.

"Umm, wha.." Eija started to say as she came to. "Any 2s? Go fish."

Blinking around and eyes widening as she started to push herself up to standing, unaware she was currently being carried. The result being that both of them toppled to the ground.

"Are we on a train?" Eija demanded as she looked at the world speeding by.

Kaname sat up and looked at Eija, eyes rolling.

"Eija, you're a super-powered martial artist with psychic powers and magic spells, right?" Kaname asked.

"Well, yes," Eija noted.

"So why is it I keep ending up having to carry your unconscious body?" Kaname demanded.

Eija scratched the back of her head in imitation of her mother caught in similar embarrassing moments and laughed nervously.

"It does seem to be getting to be a habit," she noted.

Back at the fight, Sousuke wasn't trained in chi-enhancing techniques, but his combat and true battle experience was still easily superior to Kuno's. Kuno had been practicing his art for the last seventeen years in the same half-delusional way he'd done so for the first part of his life.

He'd been involved in a few local encounters, but had been refused for service in the JSDF unlike several of the Nerima martial artists. As a result, he hadn't been involved in the spill over battles with pirates and rogue military units from the Chinese civil war.

The only thing keeping him near even pace with Sousuke were those chi skills that let him use his bokken to tear through the surroundings. However, without the subtlety to his attacks, the chi-enhanced strikes were uselessly off target.

The train came to a jarring stop at the Nerima station, which jostled Kuno in a manner unforgiveable in martial artist of his self-proclaimed stature. In the opening, the swordsman felt the mercenary's knife blade slash through his achilles tendon and then again into his shoulder.

"You're finished," Sousuke said.

"Never!" Kuno declared, trying to stand up and get into stance again. "I am the invincible Blue Thunder of the Kuno clan, no mere child could defeat me without the trickery of some sort of magic."

"Negative," Sousuke said in a smug tone in he reserved for weaker opponents. "You already had the only magician in the area unconscious. Magic was not a factor, merely your own incompetence and weakness. Your paranormal skills served only to delay the inevitable."

"You cannot stop me from freeing my love from the foul hands of that sorcerer, Ranma Saotome," Kuno growled as he finally got to his feet...

...and found himself knocked senseless by a woman's fist as she stepped onto the train.

"Damn lunatic bastard," the woman said, holding a carry on bag and wearing a travel uniform. "What do you have to do with Ranma...oh, nevermind, I see Eija-chan."

"Saotome-san," Eija said walking over. "Do you know this person?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Akane said. "But when did he learn about Ranma?"

"So, you do know my mother," Eija said. "From before that visit."

Sousuke and Kaname were about to ask their own questions in response to that, but the sound of a cell phone interrupted that thought.

Sousuke reached down for his phone and raised it to his ear. Quickly, his eyes widened as he heard over the line the situation developing further on in Tokyo.

"Excuse me, Lieutenant Commander Saotome," Sousuke said. "Miss Chidori, Miss Satomi. I'm afraid there is a situation I must attend to back in our neighborhood. Can I trust you to stay here and explain the situation?"

Before Kaname or Eija could answer, Sousuke was dashing across the train platform for the line just leaving back the other way.

"He does that often?" Akane asked as she bent down to hand-cuff Kuno and lift him, carrying him off the the train, the two teens following along behind her.

"He's always jumping to do something," Kaname said. "Do you mind if ask why you carry hand-cuffs? That's a naval uniform, not a police officer's."

"Let's see," Akane said, dumping Kuno. "How to explain the handcuffs."

She paused and then looked over at Kuno's unconscious form.

"Is he explanation enough?" she asked with a smirk.

****

Tessa waited anxiously for Sousuke to come home and help her, lead her back to Mithril and get this boy in safe hands so that A-21 couldn't use him.

School should be out soon and when it was let out, Sousuke would be there to protect her.

Of course, she couldn't know that Sousuke was currently chasing down another situation and wouldn't be getting contacted on her situation until Yang woke up in the hospital and contacted Mithril.

Down below help was arriving, but not the help that Tessa was expecting.

Naiki landed in the apartment building's parking lot and weaved between the cars to the entrance, following last wisps of smoke to find the right building. From there it was only an inhaled breath to catch hold of any scents she recognized.

Naiki had expected Sousuke's scent to be strong, as this was apparently his home, and Kaname's scent being strong wasn't too much of a surprise. She hadn't realized Eija was over here so often though. In any case, she found what she was looking for easily enough woven among those other scents.

It reminded her of the fact that her sister was currently in the hands of a pervert with only Sousuke and Kaname to help her. She knew that the mercenary had gotten them out of Korea, but a part of her still wished she'd asked Geisthexe-san to handle this problem here instead of "cleaning it up" herself.

Really, that had been pride speaking, just like always.

Tessa's scent had been all over the Danaan, so it was easily recognizeable and, especially woven among the other scents, easy to follow.

The green-haired martial artist made no effort to move quietly as she rushed up the stairs, thankful that the mercenary apparently didn't always use the elevators. She took short cuts, leaping from flight to flight, using the railings as spring boards, until she caught a whiff of the scents turning into one of the floors.

She caught sight of a figure wrapped completely up in a sweater and hood, a gas-mask covering their face.

The man didn't hear her coming as she passed by and, seeing the gun in his hand, didn't hesitate this time to use the killing techniques she'd held back on using against the old man with the stick earlier.

The obvious assailant went down to the ground with his neck snapped in a brief movement as Naiki moved toward the door and burst it inward with a yamasen strike that sent the door into the wall along the other end of the apartment.

Hopefully Sousuke wouldn't mind the damage.

Coming in the door, Naiki saw a scrawny kid virtually drooling at the mouth as he lunged at Teletha Testarossa. It was a pitiful, instinctual action that Naiki was quickly able to cut off, knocking the kid out.

"What...what are you doing here?" Tessa asked, surprised to see Naiki.

"Just a second, I smelled a second person on the guy outside," Naiki said.

As she said that the window was crashed in by another gas-mask wearing thug. The small pistol the man carried barely bruised Naiki as she put herself between him and Tessa and retaliated with a blow that caved the man's rib cage inward into an array of deadly sharp bone shards that tore apart his lungs, heart and other internal organs.

Sniffing about the air, Naiki took a relieved breath.

"Think that's all of them right now," Naiki said. "Let's get out of here before more come."

She reached out a hand and started to drag Tessa away when the white-lavender-haired girl protested.

"No, we have to bring him with us," Tessa insisted, indicating the wild child that had been assaulting her earlier. "We can't let A-21 get a hold of him."

Naiki arched an eyebrow as she looked at the boy, trying to figure out what anybody would want with him.

Besides, keeping track of the two of them was going to be somewhat difficult. And scent would only let her track them so well. If she could have a way to track tem even through things like elevators and cars then...

...she thought to the small library of occult tomes back at home and remembering something Eija had been prattling about as being possibly of interest to her.

"Okay," Naiki said. "Fine, we'll take him with us. But let's get out of here fast. I'll bet these guys called you in first."

****

"Miss Satomi," Tessa said, breathing heavily. "How did you know I needed help or where I was."

Naiki thought about that for a moment and decided that "a demon told me" probably wasn't the best answer even for people that had learned magic was real.

"Ah, I was looking for Eija," she said. "And please just call me Naiki."

The green-haired girl paused, looking out of the door of the warehouse before closing it behind her and then depositing the unconscious form of their prisoner on the floor. She took in Tessa's heavily breathing form and cocked her head to the side.

"Shouldn't a military commander be in better shape?" she wondered out loud.

"Is there a phone call here that I can call for back up with?" she asked.

"Not if Mom's gone," Naiki said. "Do you know how those guys found you?"

"They may have had some sort of intelligence about Sergeant Sagara's position," Tessa said. "If they had followed me directly then they would have been there much sooner. But then, if they had known about the apartment, they should have sent men to cut me off."

She frowned and moved over to look over the young man she had brought with her.

"Come to think of it," she thought to herself. "They had known where to find him at the Japanese facility as well."

She took a moment to examine the young man and found what she was looking for, a lump on his arm. A transmitter.

"There's a transmitter under his skin here," the captain said. "They'll probably be here soon. Did you need anything from here?"

"Yeah," Naiki said, hoping she could find the information quickly enough.

The vague memory she had of Eija discussing the spell in question and that she was holding one of the celtic scrolls.

"Oh, right, the Formorian scroll," the green-haired demi-god declared.

She moved to the appropriate canister and skimming through the ancient scrolls somewhat carelessly until she found one written in the right language. Bundled up with it was the translation Eija had likely been looking over.

The green-haired girl decided she only really needed that translation and grabbed it, leaving the relic behind, grabbing a roll of message parchment as she passed by.

"I've got everything I need," Naiki said. "Let's go. Got your breath?"

Tessa nodded as the much more physical young woman walked past her and picked up the young man that she was guarding.

"We'll have to stop soon and do something about the transmitter," the Whispered girl reminded her.

"Yeah, away from home though," Naiki said.

And then they were out into the night again.

Naiki had them moved in back alleys for fifteen minutes before stopping again to deal with the transmitter that had their enemies tracking them.

"We could cut it out," Tessa suggested. "But if we don't have time to stitch him up afterwards the blood trail would lead right to us."

"Hmph," Naiki said. "Couldn't we just break it?"

"That'll work," the whispered agreed.

Nodding, Naiki wrapped a hand around the mouth of her prisoner and used the other hand to squeeze, relatively lightly, on the boy's arm until she felt the lump under the skin crack.

For a brief moment, the young man woke up in pain, but was quickly unconscious again.

Then they were moving again.

At one point, a speeding truck moved ten feet from where they sat behind a bus-stop bench, and they knew that the people seeking the boy had realized that the transmitter had been disabled.

When the truck passed them, Naiki pushed Tessa to a quicker pace, walking behind her with a hand on her shoulder until they came to another of the old warehouses in the neighborhood around her home.

"Time to try this out," Naiki said, pulling out the translated scroll to read.

It was a spell to at least temporarily upgrade her tracking abilities to levels that were beyond just enhanced senses into the supernatural. She could cast it once here, recover, and then if she got seperated from either of her charges later, she'd be able to recognize their spiritual "scents".

The demi-goddess paused as she started to read the translation and remembered why she hadn't spent the time to learn the spell.

She had never wanted to take the time and effort to redesign it using white-magic formulae.

The grimaced and looked up to where Tessa was catching her breath and she could smell the boy getting closer to waking up.

"What the hell," Naiki muttered to herself. "I'm already getting demonic help."

"Pardon?" Tessa asked looking up.

"Nothing," Naiki said quickly as she sat down and took a deep breath, getting ready to feel the drain on her system spell casting caused her.

Tessa had not been around for a spell, and Kaname had been unconscious most of the time she was on the sub. As Naiki cast her spell, Tessa flinched as the world about her seemed to turn inside out, everything appearing twisted and enlongated and twisting toward a single point: Naiki.

It was a different sensation than Kaname had felt around Eija's white-magic, where the world would turn negative colors lit by something emanating out of the dark-girl. Tessa, however, had nothing to compare it to.

She did hear the whispers on the edge of her mind as her whispered nature reacted to the spell-casting.

"Nidhog System Access: External User."

Then, as the world started returning to a normal status, she felt something else: Resonance.

In a half-seconds moment, Tessa felt a rush of anger, protectiveness, pride and a trace of guilt.

Naiki stood up in surprise as Tessa felt the other girl's thoughts on feeling the connection. The green-haired girl stumbled back a few steps and almost fell just before the brief connection closed.

Tessa stared at her in shock.

"Naiki," she said, appropriately, in a whisper. "What did you just do?"

"It's just supposed to let me get your soul's 'scent'," Naiki sputtered. "It's supposed to let me track you anywhere, not feel what you're feeling. What was that?!"

In the shock of that surprise, Naiki had failed to note that the spell hadn't tired her significantly.

Tessa thought about explaining it to the girl, but at that moment, their guest started coming to again.

"Where are we?" the boy asked, rubbing his head as he looked around cautiously.

Naiki put away her discomfort and stood menacingly over him.

"Somewhere no one's going to find you," Naiki said.

****

Sousuke frowned as he stood in his wide-open apartment and glared at the four bodies in his bathroom.

"This is Urzu-7," he said, moving to the radio, thankful that whoever had broken in had managed to avoid damaging it. "The Captain is not present at my location, but there appear to be two terrorists down. A clean up crew is requested immediately."

"Roger, Urzu-7," Mao's voice returned. "This is Urzu-2, does it appear that the terrorists have the Captain?"

"Negative," Sousuke said. "There was a team here just reporting that their objective was not present. They're apparently following a transmitter of some kind. They can't be far."

"Right, we have to hope she can get in contact with us then," Mao said.

****

"Hecate? The Goddess of Vengeance?" Ranma asked. "Why do you say her?"

"Because in order for your daughter to be a death seer," Morrigan explained. "Her divine parent would have to be from the line of a death god. Hecate is Hades' daughter, so she qualifies. She's also the only death-born goddess that works in security."

The red-headed war goddess stood up and looked toward Urd with a nod.

"I'm heading back up to handle this before anybody slips the noose," she said. "Can you fix the file references?"

"ASAP," Urd said with a wink as Morrigan left the way she came in, through the laundry. "I've already linked up Saotome's here, or is it Satomi?"

"Satomi for now," Ranma said firmly.

There was too much potential trouble on the Saotome end for her to take that name just yet.

"Good," Urd said. "I don't have to do any edits then."

She walked in and sat down across from Ranma, pouring herself a cup of tea from what Belldandy had left them.

"Mind if I ask you what the forehead marks are?" Ranma asked, sipping her own tea.

"Oh, these?" Urd asked. "They're sort of like firewalls."

"Excuse me?" Ranma asked. "Flamewalls?"

"You're not a computer person, are you?" Urd asked.

"Not really," the martial artist noted.

"Well, gods and goddesses are linked by a sort of mental network," Urd said. "In the old days when we'd just developed the ability, there were dangers."

"Other than people always peeking on your thoughts?" Ranma asked with a shiver.

"Loss of identity," Urd said. "Stay connected too long, or connect too deeply and two minds would become one."

"Wait," Ranma said, looking toward the laundry that had swallowed up the red-headed goddess. "A lot of celtic myths say the Morrigan is made up of three goddesses."

"You're quick," Urd said with a semi-sad smirk. "She used to be a they. Anyway, these marks do two things. Keep the connection up constantly, and keep our minds from being lost within each other."

"So would my kids need to get those marks?" Ranma asked, seriously.

"Not as long as they keep their human side," the tanned goddess said shrugging. "Humans don't have a network to worry about losing themselves too."

Further discussion was cut short as a butterfly flapped into the room towards Ranma.

****

"Affirmative," Sousuke said into his cell-phone. "Yes, ma'am. That is not a problem. We already have resources in place, yes, Ma'am. I left your daughter and Miss Chidori with an acquaintance of yours. Lieutenant Commander Saotome. Yes Ma'am."

The young man was standing at a ttention as he spoke to the older woman over the cell-phone. When the call was finished, he moved to his radio and checked in.

"Urzu-7 here, new information on the Captain's location," he said.

****

"Okay," Naiki said. "Message is away."

The demi-goddess took in the boy sitting across the room from her. Takuma, as Tessa had called him, hadn't made another move to escape since he'd woken up. But he hadn't stopped watching the area yet, he was still looking for a way out.

Naiki hadn't liked him when she first laid eyes on him jumping like a wild animal at Tessa, but she'd put him down easy on seeing that he didn't have any skill or weapons.

She liked him less now that she'd been around him more. His physical scent was full of adrenaline and the burning scent of a body on overdrive. There wasn't any fear, not really, just anger. There was a chemical on his scent that didn't smell like anything she thought would belong to a person.

Some sort of drug, she figured.

What she'd felt when she cast the Wild Hunt spell, she'd found she liked him even less than she did with her regular senses.

The boy's soul was a twisted pit of warped desire and violent impulse.

Very much in contrast to Tessa's spirit, which was soft and compassionate, and full of unbending morals.

Tessa wanted him alive.

Her mother would expect her to keep him alive as long as he didn't force her to kill him in a fight.

But the more she was around him, the more she expected that at some point, he was going to kill someone, somehow.

"Then I suppose back-up should be coming soon," Tessa said with a sigh of relief.

The sub-captain hadn't said much about what was going on with the boy, aside from the obvious fact that a terrorist organization wanted him for some reason or another, and Naiki hadn't asked.

It probably had to do with some sort of high-tech monstrosity that made her twelve or so years studying martial arts and magic look like a big waste of time.

"I think I need to go the bathroom," Takuma said. "Is there one in this place?"

Naiki looked around for a moment and found a dusty old sign marking a toilet across the old warehouse.

"Yeah," Naiki said. "There's one over there. Let me show you the way."

Naiki grabbed him and hefted the boy up to his feet before pushing him toward the bathroom.

"You could be more polite, Miss Satomi," Tessa protested.

Naiki ignored the comment as she walked the way too pleased young man to the restroom, and checked to make sure there were no windows big enough to get out of.

Naiki hadn't had much experience as a captor before, but she'd had to escape places once or twice, and had a few ideas on how she'd get out.

She almost missed it as the boy reached over and flicked on a light switch.

Immediately, Naiki flipped the switch back closed, smirking at her prisoner.

"I don't think you need a light," she said reaching up and breaking the light bulb. "Now hurry up or the spiders will get you."

"Don't worry about me," Takuma said as Naiki stepped back and let the door close.

Something told her that was a mistake, but she couldn't think of anything else he could do to get help to him.

It only took a short minute for the boy to come out to the sound of a flushing toilet and Naiki watched him suspiciously as he walked calmly back to where Naiki had had him before.

Naiki started to relax as it looked like the psycho-brat really had wanted nothing more than to relieve himself.

That's when the subtle wafting scent of smoke filtered to her on the stagnant air.

Jumping across the room, Naiki came to the bathroom door and flung it open to see flames flickering across the room, trailing down what looked like it might have a roll of toilet paper that had been stuffed up into the light fixture.

As soon as she opened the door, smoke wafted out into the building as a whole.

Growling, Naiki reached out to the water still running in the old pipes and cast the spell to burst them over the room, damping the small fire and carrying the smoke down as sodden ash.

Dropping to her knee with the effort of casting the white-magic elemental spell, Naiki gasped as she heard a scuffle across the warehouse. Looking that way, she saw the psycho-brat holding Tessa's small pistol to her head.

The sharkish demi-goddess jumped up to a table and started to move forward when Takuma pulled the hammer back on the pistol.

"Uh uh," he said, smirking. "Think you can cover the distance between me and you before I pull the trigger."

"I'll be fine, Miss Satomi," Tessa said.

"His people are all over the place looking for us," Naiki thought to herself, if they missed the little bit of smoke then a gunshot would bring them running.

Naiki thought she could, even after the weariness of casting that little spell, but she wasn't overly certain. Besides, she had a suspicion about what would happen if she relaxed a little.

As she rested back on her haunches, the boy shifted the direction of the gun and smirked as he fired a shot into the floor

Takuma's eyes widened as she moved on the first shot and his finger slipped a second shot into nothing before he could even think about who to aim the gun at. Then the Satomi's fist was in his face and her other hand was grabbing under his shoulder to rip him away from Tessa, carrying both through the wall of the building.

Naiki slammed the boy into the ground and raised a hand to finish him off.

"Stop!" Tessa shouted.

"You're lucky," Naiki said, standing up away from the boy. As Naiki stood and before she could haul the boy up, a burst of gunfire pierced through the night air. Three rounds hit the demi-goddess like light jabs and she turned to face her surprised attacker lashing out with an arm and sending a black vacuum blade through the first gunman and the man behind him.

Turning about, she jabbed a finger into Takuma's throat, shutting his throat just long enough to send the boy into a faint.

"Get him and run!" Naiki shouted. "I'll watch your back."

"But you're a civilian," Tessa protested.

"Now," Naiki said as she noticed more terrorists coming around the corner pausing as they saw the bodies cut in half by the vacuum blade.

Tessa grimaced but listened as she hefted the boy under his armpits like she had to get him to Sousuke's. Ahead, the demi-goddess was tearing apart the two terrorists that came around the corner and backing up away from the corner, watching it and sniffing at the air.

Suddenly Naiki spun around as hands grabbed Tessa, pulling her back. Naiki started forward, but the weapon turned against her was much larger than a pistol and she was too focused on the girl she was trying to guard to take into account the rocket launcher pointed at her.

The thoughts of the man behind the rocket launcher were anything but calm, and the fact that two of his comrades were moving out ahead to try and block the monster that had already taken out four, maybe six of them including the apartment.

Naiki dodged just barely in time to avoid a direct hit, but it still exploded barely a foot away, sending her catapulting through the air with un-fond half-memories of tank shells in Korea before she blasted through a brick wall.

The two men that had been moving to intercept her found themselves splattered apart the scene as the only remaining members of the recovery team secured Tessa and the unconscious Takuma. It was a tough decision to know whether they had had a better death from friendly fire than from whatever Naiki had been likely to cause in passing.

"Let's move, Seina wants the other girl alive," one of the men said as he held onto Tessa.

The sub captain looked up toward where the Satomi had blown through the wall and bit her lip. She guessed from the files on the Korea action that Naiki would survive that, but she didn't want to clue the people around her in on that.

Meanwhile, Kaname watched Eija and Lieutenant Commander Saotome stare at each other across the train's aisle.

"Your mother said she was going to tell you soon," Akane said finally. "But yes, I knew your mother a long time ago. We tended to fight a lot back then."

"And now?" Kaname asked.

"Now I think we'll leave the rest to your mother," Akane said. "She's supposed to meet us at the dock station."

"So, you're going back to Okinawa tonight?" Kaname asked. "Isn't that rather short?"

"I tend to leave these family visits as late as possible," Akane said. "In this case, it's a destroyer running night maneuvers. I pull some extra duty for them to get a ride home, and I get an extra couple hours with my sisters."

"What about your husband?" Kaname asked.

"I see him more than I see my sisters," Akane said with a smirk.

And the train moved on, heading for a station not far either from a JSDF maritime base or a large cargo ship with a particular crew.

****

Deimosu could almost still hear the eerie voices of the Furies as he left the occult shop.

The words trailed behind him like the whispers of spirits hounding his steps.

_"Destroy the record of hostages."_

_"Kill the guilty gods."_

_"Tainted by the line of Hades."_

_"...line of Zeus..."_

_"...line of Poseiden..."_

_"In the East"_

_"Hidden in the Titan's Shadow"_

_"Vengeance"_

And mixed in were some statements that he could only barely catch as present. Everytime he turned his mind to think about them, they faded away to nothing and he convinced himself that he was imagining things.

Deimosu had other things on his mind.

Originally, he'd only planned to get information as to what had happened. Then he could talk to his mother about it and get her to tell his sisters and they could decide what to do about the situation.

But now, hearing that there were gods and demons involved, his thoughts were running in a different course.

He wasn't the most respectful of magic and occult knowledge outside his knowledge of martial arts and chi...

If he had been he might have been more concerned about the "remembered" whispers.

...but he did know the stories from his homeland.

And among them was the "fact" that Zeus was doomed to die at the hands of one of his children.

In that case, it was probably best he didn't involve his family anymore. This was his task to avenge his mother and bring justice...no retribution and vengeance...on these rogue gods.

It was his job, and they'd just get in the way if they tried to help.

Destiny supported him, after all.

He just needed to stop by home for a few travelling necessities.

Hopefully, he could get in and out without any of his family stopping him.

****

Sousuke was the first to reach the site of the explosion and found Naiki half-buried by debris. Checking her vitals, he found that she was just stunned and proceeded to start digging her out.

He would have contacted the others over the radio, but both Mao and Kurz were on site a little less than two minutes after he had arrived.

"She's fine," Sousuke said, his voice tight with frustration at arriving late. "But there's no sign of either the Captain or her reported prisoner."

Mao nodded and started to radio in the situation.

"Satomi," the mercenary said shaking the girl lightly. If anybody noticed the lack of a title or honorific, nobody said anything.

The green-haired martial artist snapped awake, looking around.

"Where'd..." she said, looking around before slumping a bit. "I messed up."

"Affirmative," Sousuke said. "We'll take over from here."

"No, wait," Naiki snapped, sitting up.

Sousuke turned to look at her curiously.

"This is now a concern for professionals," he said. "Not talented amateurs."

Kurz turned to look at his younger comrade for a moment.

"Hey," he said. "We don't know what happened here. No need to get harsh."

"It was my fault," Naiki said quietly. "All of today. You've been cleaning up my mess since Eija went to go help that pervert."

If anything, Sousuke's bland expression turned down into a frown at that comment.

"But I can find that submarine girl and the boy," she said. "I took precautions just in case."

Sousuke's stance didn't slacken at all, but he did nod slightly in consideration for the step toward professionalism that the girl had apparently taken.

"Are you going to track them by smell?" Mao asked.

"No, by soul," Naiki said, failing to mention that she was going to owe a demon a favor by casting this spell, if she didn't already.

****

Mara winced as she felt Naiki casting the Wild Hunt spell again.

She could have cast a Rakshasha hunting spell, and simply had Ravana looking for a dinner date.

An Oni seeking mantra, and had Susano-O asking her to pull a prank on his sister.

"I'd rather her looking to Heaven than casting a Formorian spell," Mara mumbled, resisting the urge to go down there and shake her recruit silly.

Even with Balor safely locked in Abyss and his license indefinitely revoked, the idea of Naiki owing him even a minor favor enforceable by Nidhog was...worrying.

"Naiki..." she whispered. "There are demons and then...There Are Demons."


	11. The Roads Have Chosen

Tessa sat alone in the bare, rusty room sighing to herself and hugging her knees. She couldn't help but wonder if she would have been captured had Sergeant Sagara been the one to come to her rescue instead of Miss Satomi's daughter.

That was unfair though.

For a rookie, Naiki had done a decent job.

All in all it was a much better showing than the girl had had in Korea going by Sousuke's reports. Granted, bodyguard and escape and evade were not Tessa's specialties so she wasn't certain if her opinions were appropriate or not.

In any case, Naiki was likely to be unconscious at the warehouse and she was here, alone, in enemy hands.

The door opened up on the makeshift cell they'd placed her in.

"Get up," the gunman coming in said. "And come with me."

Tessa started to stand when a familiar sensation washed over her. The world immediately about Tessa became somewhat distant and hazy, the next few words by the armed thug blurred by indecipherably.

She felt Naiki react with discomfort again, obviously not having Tessa's experience with Resonance, but this time she didn't break the connection.

_Miss Satomi_ Tessa thought as she followed the gunman. _What are you doing?_

_I'm tracking you down, Sousuke and friends are with me._  
"I'm tracking you down, Sousuke and friends are with me."

_You don't have to speak aloud when you talk to me this way._

_Oh. Sor...err...sorry._  
"Oh. Sor...err..."

_She says I don't have to talk out lou...right. Anything you can tell us?_  
She says I don't have to talk out lou...right.

Tessa related what she'd seen so far, that the terrorist leader was a young woman in her early twenties in a mecha-pilot crash suit. They were on a cargo freighter of some kind.

Her thoughts were occasionally interrupted as she heard the echoing thoughts of Naiki giving whoever was driving directions and reporting information.

_Staying connected this long is dangerous, Miss Satomi._ Tessa warned mentally. _If you have a good lock on my position you should break off now. Or just resonate again later._

_There are dangers to this spell too,_ Naiki responded.

Uncalled for, a trace of worry leaked across the Resonance to Tessa in the form of a memory.

_"You shouldn't cast black magic,"_

Tessa could remember a sorcerer saying as if she'd been there to hear it.

_"Every time you use a black magic formulae you owe a favor to whatever demon empowers that spell. Depending on the demon and the spell, that could be annoyance or enslavement."_

Tessa's eyes widened briefly, not just at the content of the memory, but at the clarity of it as well.

"Get in there," the gunman ordered, shoving Tessa ahead of him.

The lavender-haired officer gasped as she saw Lieutenant Commander Kalinin lying on the bed in the room.

"Mr. Kalinin!" Tessa gasped outloud, simultaneously relaying the thought to Naiki.

"All right, old man," the thug said. "Tell us everything you know about the lambda driver."

****

"There's some old guy named Kalinin there," Naiki said, gritting her teeth. "Turn at the next exit."

"Is he alive?" Sousuke asked.

"Huh?" Naiki asked. "Oh, he's hurt, but he's alive."

Trying to focus on three mental tasks at once like this was more difficult than she thought.

The police sirens blaring behind them weren't a help.

_All the relevant past reports were sitting in front of her._

She'd pegged Ranma Satomi as a possible Sensitive. Given Sergeant Sagara's other reports she should have done so for her children. And that certainly increased the chances that someone would try something.

"This is my fault. I shouldn't have relaxed."

_What's that? What's my fault?_ Naiki thought.

There was a delay before the answer came and Naiki had a filtered image of what was happening in the room where Tessa and Kalinin were managing their escape.

_Damn it, I think it's happening already, too quick,_ Tessa said. _We need to break off the Resonance now!_

She was trying to break the resonance on her end, but it seemed the "spell" driving this Resonance wasn't willing to let go.

_But we're almost there_

_Then stop concentrating so hard,_ Tessa demanded. _If you keep pushing so hard, our minds our going to be permanently tangled!_

_What?_

_Break off the resonance!_ the command rang solidly through Naiki's head, echoing like the sound of a great bell.

With the location of the ship in view, the demi-goddess reluctantly let the spell drop away and her contact with Tessa along with it.

At last there was only a trickle of emotion at the back of Naiki's mind.

****

With a sigh of relief Tessa felt the presence of the other girl fade into the background. Dwindling into just a trace of alien emotions before it should have vanished away completely.

It didn't vanish away but stayed muted in the background.

"Something wrong, Captain?" Kalinin asked as they moved through the ship to see what the terrorists had in the hold of the ship.

"Nothing," Tessa said as they pounded into the hold and froze to a stop.

Standing before them was a massive red AS the likes of which Captain Telarossa couldn't have imagined as possible until now.

"I should have let her hold the Resonance a minute or two more," the prodigy whispered.

"Pardon, Ma'am?" Kalinin asked.

****

Outside the pickup truck drove up the ramp and into the ship as Mao's M-9 came visible and held the dock against the gathered police officers.

"Let's go," Sousuke said, nodding to Kurz as he listened to the mini-drama outside confirm that the police weren't about to try to get in past the M-9. "Naiki, lead the way, but let Kurz and I handle the firefight."

"Last I checked, Sousuke, I outranked you," Kurz noted. "So quit ac...

"And I out rank both of you!" Mao said over radio. "So you get your asses going now!"

Kurz winced as Sousuke simply accepted the instruction and followed behind Naiki, sniffing at the air to find Tessa and Takuma's physical scent.

****

Her name was Seina and she was the leader of A-21.

Once upon a time, she was a simple delinquent with a criminal record.

She likely would have become the proverbial "product of the system" much earlier had it not been for one man: Seiji Takechi.

An ex-mercenary, he'd taken them in, taught them survival and war tactics.

He taught them self-reliance and self-respect.

And when he was through, they had no thought for crime.

They could have gone on and finished their school careers and then taken those skills to other jobs when their juvenile records were expunged.

Military, law enforcements, movie stunts and consulting, wilderness guides.

There were a lot of possiblities.

Then the reporters came to A-21's training grounds and through their own incompetence and unwelcome nosiness, they tampered with equipment and people died.

The survivors of the reporting crew claimed that A-21 attacked them and A-21 was marked as a terrorist organization.

Their leader, Seiji Takechi hung himself in prison.

And they became criminals anyway.

Now, they were so close to their revenge and things were getting a lot more dangerous than she had expected.

Six men dead to what her comrades described as a green-haired school girl, probably some sort of undercover super-soldier.

Another two had died when one of her own had panicked and fired a rocket without warning.

And beyond that there was the old man they had taken prisoner.

He had a nagging way of seeing through her to the heart of her motives and thoughts. It was a good thing that he was a prisoner and not out there acting against them.

They'd lucked out in that way.

At least she thought so until she went to check on the interrogation of the man, this time using that teenie bopper secretary as a bit of leverage.

Another man down.

Nine.

Nine!

There was only her, Takuma and two others left to fight.

Four of them left to finish their revenge.

They'd long ago taken care of the specific individuals responsible for the tragedy and their leader's death.

Now all that was left was to get revenge on the people of this sick country.

She pulled up a radio and talked into it.

"Is Takuma ready? Get to the hold, our guests are loose and I can guess where they're going. Get Haichi and meet me in the hold."

Drawing her gun, she started running, taking an alternate route than the straight away so she wouldn't accidentally stumble on their enemies on her own.

The sound of sirens rang in from the outside and she gritted her teeth in realization that the police had arrived.

It didn't take long to meet up with the remainder of her comrades, sending the two remaining soldiers around to another entrance so that they could come in from two directions.

They were just coming to the cargo hold when the voice of that girl came to her.

"What is that? I've never seen an AS like that before."

At that, before the girl's leader could answer her, Seina and her group stepped into view.

"That's behemoth," she said, gun pointed out.

Takuma got a wild expression in his face and started to open his mouth to speak, but with so many dead and police already here, they didn't have time for that.

"Get in the cockpit now," Seina said. "We'll hold here to give you time."

"But, I need..." Takuma started.

"You need to do as I say!" Seina snapped. "Go! Get our revenge, make me happy."

"Y...yes Seina," he said. "I will. I will!"

The boy started running for the cockpit to the behemoth.

"But if you get on that AS, it will take you over!" Tessa shouted out.

"That's exactly the point," Seina said. "Once we release Behemoth, no one can stop it."

"And you'll have your revenge on this city for the death of Seji Takechi," Kalinin reasoned.

"Exactly right, old man," Seina said with a smirk as she heard Takuma climbing up into the cockpit.

And then the gunfire started as two figures in AS crash-suits stormed in on a walkway across the hold, guns at the ready as her last two comrades besides Takuma fell.

Grimacing she turned to see the old man and the girl with him making a run for it, and, in her extremity of emotion, she fired wildly, doing nothing but encouraging them to move faster.

Seina was reloading and calming herself down when a green-haired figure leaped across the hold and landed lightly on the railing next to her.

In half a breath's time, her pistol was falling to the hold below and her arm was shattered. Death was following up quickly behind the demi-goddess's hands, but interrupted when the whole ship shook and Seina's would be killer had hop away and recover her footing before resuming an attack.

And, as the Behemoth moved, Naiki and the others had more to worry about than Seina.

"Is that an AS?" Kurz demanded in shock as he tracked off his target and saw what was causing the ship to twist about like it was sitting on top of the San Andreas for the big one.

"Sousuke, get the Captain out of here!" Kalinin commanded as the boat rocked.

"Right, Satomi, move yourself clear!" Sousuke yelled as he took charge of Tessa's safety and moved back into the boat making for their "borrowed" truck.

Naiki grimaced as she watched the young woman she'd been about to take care of trying to stand.

"Go," the old soldier in the bandages told her. "I've got her."

The grimace Naiki gave as she glared at her previous target was almost a snarl, but she did leap up into the air and catch the edge of hold's upper port above. Then she was on the top of the cargo ship and scanning about for a good position overlooking the harbor.

The ship shook out from under her again and she leaped away, landing atop the control tower of a crane overlooking the ship.

Back on a relatively solid surface she looked about at the water around her and started to gather herself up.

"Not those spells," a familiar voice said.

Naiki turned around to see Geisthexe-san leaning casually against one of the cables on the structure of the crane.

****

Sousuke had hung back just long enough to see Naiki leaving the boat by jumping out of it and, certain that she was able to get out on her own, he raced ahead with the Captain and Kurz.

They could feel the ship sinking under the weight of the massive AS in the hold as it's carefully balanced bulk shifted and displaced badly.

They were reaching the first bay where they had left the truck, the motion of the ship suddenly reversed and they were nearly thrown off their feet as the boat rose up in the water as if many tons of mass were suddenly removed from its burden.

"Go, go, go!" Kurz yelled as he opened the door for the Captain and piled into the truck with her, Sousuke moving to the driver's seat.

They were speeding out of the hold as a massive hand burst out of the ship to grab Mao's M9. Below them, the cop cars passed under the flying truck until it landed on the other side of the small barricade.

As soon as the truck landed, the occupants poured out to look at the ship as the Behemoth started to rise out of it.

Tessa felt a slight tug, a shadow of righteous rage, and glanced to the side and up, catching sight of Naiki standing above the rising Behemoth. And standing next to her was a figure that keeping out of a clear line of sight.

"Who's that?" she wondered.

"What the hell is going on here!?" Mao's voice yelled out, drawing Tessa's attention.

****

"Heaven still doesn't know you exist," Mara said. "And you're not strong enough to make a difference against that if you try to force your way into their network."

"But the only spells I know are white," Naiki protested. "Except..."

"Yeah, the Wild Hunt is a bad spell to use too," Mara said. "The guy who powers it...is not nice."

Naiki winced as the demoness referred to another demon as "not nice".

Below her, the Behemoth's hand burst out of the ship to grab the M9 that Mao had been piloting.

"Okay, repeat after me and focus on the power," Mara said quickly, moving to Naiki's side and crouching beside her, using the teen to block her profile from anybody below that might look upward. "You've got a very little time before that thing kills your mercenary friend in the robot."

"Hai, Geisthexe-san," Naiki said.

"Monster of the Norse Deeps," Mara whispered.

"Monster of the Norse Deeps," Naiki followed.

"Who brooks no rival in his domain,"

"Who brooks no rival in his domain,"

"Give me your arms and your strength,"

"Give me your arms and your strength,"

"To visit wrath on this beast of metal," they spoke together. "Kraken grip!"

As they spoke, a red energy formed in Naiki and Mara's hands as both felt the anger and rage growing in the back of their minds. For Naiki it was less than Mara, but she still felt it.

This red Behemoth was set to harm her friends.

To attack this city!

This abomination!

Had to be destroyed.

As the spell was completed, Mara let Naiki take the reins, sitting back passively and ready to take control should her student lose herself. At the same time, taking advantage of her position as one of the casters, she took the favor on herself, besides Kraken owed her own or two already.

Massive lashing arms of water that seemed to solidify into the limbs of a massive octopus whipped up out of the water and grabbed onto the gigantic red AS, pulling it backwards.

From where she stood, eyes glowing red with demonic power was she reached out with her fingers like a puppet master controlling the massive water tentacles.

****

Ranma's aura of casual and calm patience was easily discernible to Urd as a facade. All the woman's energies were primed to act even though her mind was forcing her to stay still and wait at least for the one child coming to her.

The woman was almost constantly on edge around the goddesses. Given her experiences with other dieties, Urd could hardly blame her.

Of course, given the brief fight against Morrigan, the fact that Miss Satomi was on edge had Urd on edge, even if the woman was human and unlikely to just suddenly come after her.

It was an uncomfortable silence as they waited. In fact, Ranma had stopped talking much as soon as she learned there was trouble going on with her kids.

Another train rolled in and Ranma stood up, her senses reacting to the familiar chi within.

The doors opened and out among the small crowd of people came two teenagers and another woman, this one wearing a maritime uniform and carrying some modest luggage with her.

"Okaasan!" Eija called out, waving as the crowd parted ahead of her.

Ranma breathed a sigh of relief and walked forward to meet her daughter, hugging her tightly and kissing Eija on the forehead despite the flush of embarassment on Eija's face.

For the two people watching that had some idea of what was happening, they could almost see Ranma checking one name off of her list and shifting worry towards the other two.

"There's going to be some discussion of what went wrong," Ranma whispered.

"Hai, Okaasan," Eija said.

"Thanks for bringing her back, Akane," Ranma said, muscles still tight under the skin and getting ready to spring.

"It's the least I could do," the maritime officer said, glancing toward the white-haired woman standing a little bit behind Ranma.

"And you and Sousuke too," Ranma said, turning to Kaname. "It seems you two are firmly determined to keep my little girl safe."

"Oh it's nothing Miss Satomi," Kaname said with a laugh.

Urd quietly looked over Eija and Kaname, picking out Eija by the conversation and descriptions as Ranma's daughter. As subtly as possible, she opened a many keyboard in her hands, similar to the cell phones and blackberries seen around nowadays.

She was already half-way through making the appropriate connections when the conversation turned toward her.

"Too bad you had to cut your...meeting short," Akane said, with a trace of mild disapproval.

"Oh, don't mind me," Urd said. "Miss Satomi is clearing up some past business with members of our organization and since I'm on sabbatical out this way, I'm being asked to help out with things."

Akane looked notably embarassed in response to Urd's explanation. Ranma smirked a little as he could see the gears turning and Akane silently lecturing herself for jumping to conclusions again.

"Oh, I see," Akane said, she stepped forward and whispered toward Ranma where Eija could here. "This one's guessed you've known us from a ways back, so I'm going to tell right up it was Kuno."

"Kuno?!" Ranma said in something like disbelief.

She turned a look on Eija that was half disappointment and half sudden worry.

"He was on the road injured and I went to see if he needed help," Eija said by way of explanation.

It wasn't an excuse, she should have been able to watch for a person playing possum, or even a hurt person reacting out of reflex.

"And the pervert jumped up and whacked her with a bokken before carrying her off," Kaname said angrily.

Ranma glanced back at Urd, to make sure she wasn't eavesdropping before turning back to the quiet conversation.

However, her coming words were interrupted by a...sensation she felt. A ripple in the chi of the world as the Behemoth's powerful lambda driver was activated.

"What is that?" Urd asked herself as she looked back towards the docks.

It felt like Human chi, just so much more focused and powerful than any single chi adept she'd ever met was capable of.

"So much chi..." Akane started as she looked over to where Ranma and the other woman were both looking.

Eija and Kaname, their own senses not quite as astute as that of of the adults around them were left with senses of foreboding.

Then came the echoing sounds of rending metal in the distance, perhaps two or three miles away into the docks.

Like so many other people at the train station, Ranma moved toward the edge of the platform and looked out toward the docks to see something that most people in area had thought was something that would only happen in a Godzilla movie.

A giant robot stood up and loomed over the dock area. Even this far away, Ranma and the others could make out its form raising over the low buildings near the water.

"What the hell is that?" Akane asked shocked. "An AS that large is physically impossible!"

Urd stared herself in that direction, especially as she felt a rise in demonic power from the same area moving to try and confront whatever that thing was.

"Mara," Urd whispered. "Why are you always biting off more than you can chew."

"So huge," Kaname whispered moving up to the railing.

"You don't think..." Eija asked.

"Sousuke," both whispered quietly.

"Naiki," Ranma said squeezing the bar under her hand and both.

"I've gotta get to base!" Akane declared, hefting her bag over her shoulder and leaping out toward the nearest roof and then continued onward.

"The hell?" Kaname said, "She's another one of you?"

"Stay here," Ranma snapped before sending a look at Urd and had a bit of surprise.

"I need to get a closer look at this," Urd yelled. "Eija's file is all taken care of."

With that, the woman walked to one of the TVs showing the news footage and leaped into it, vanishing in a blink.

Kaname felt a familiar flicker as the woman did that and shook her head clear of the sensation.

"Okay," Ranma said. "I'm heading over there, you two stay here!"

"Like hell!" Kaname snapped as Eija had started to nod in unhappy acceptance.

Ranma turned to face the girl.

"Listen girl, that's a monster on the level of the Orochi," Ranma said. "Maybe worse, so don't think you're going to convince me to let you come."

"Miss Satomi, I don't care what it is!" Kaname shouted. "That military nut is over there right now, I know it, and he's doing something crazy. And I heard say Naiki's name, and she's a...sort of friend. Well she's Eija's sister and that's enough."

Eija looked on at Kaname in surprise as the other girl dictated to her mother what was happening.

"And what are you going to do when we get over there?" Ranma asked, falsely casual.

"I don't know," Kaname said. "But you know that I've got the inside track on these sci-fi bizarros, because I know Eija told you everything."

"Umm, well," Eija tried to protest.

When it was up to her to decide to help someone, on her own or with her friends, she was one of the first to stand up and go with it. However, when mother said don't do anything, or stay here...

Eija hadn't ever thought to protest before.

"But I need to be close enough to get a feel for it and I need Eija," at this Kaname grabbed the smaller girl around the shoulder and pulled her close. "To keep whoever else is in that stuff off my back while I look for answers."

Ranma stared firmly into Kaname's determined eyes for a long second.

"We're going," Kaname added firmly.

Next to Kaname Eija looked nervous as Ranma's eyes turned toward her, but then nodded firmly.

"We have to help Naiki and Sousuke," Eija confirmed.

Ranma took a deep breath and sighed.

"If you keep insisting on stuff like this," Ranma said threateningly. "You'll be convincing me to insist on you getting some training."

"Alright! We're going," Kaname shouted.

"Stay away from it, and I mean as far away from it as you can be and still do your schtick," Ranma insisted as she held out a hand for Kaname to take it.

"That's fine, I think Eija-chan can carry me," Kaname said.

****

Takuma stared in supreme shock at the tentacles dragging the Behemoth forward.

Where had this monster come from and why did it suddenly decide to start attacking Behemoth.

Blasts from the cannons on the head exploded tentacles but they just reformed and reached out again, exorably dragging the Behemoth further into the harbor away from the land.

Irritably, Takuma tossed aside the pitiful AS in one of Behemoth's hands. Almost instantly, three of the tentacles lashed out at the AS, and the consistency of the remaining five slackened only briefly.

****

"Don't lose the anger!" Mara snapped as she watched five of the tentacles start to lose cohesion. "That monster just tossed a friend into the air and made you waste your time and effort saving them. Use that! The moment you stop being angry you lose the spell!"

"I got it! I got it!" Naiki responded as she caught the M9 and set aside to a reasonably safe landing.

Mara winced as she watched the M9 take a painful looking roll.

"Okay, building anger isn't your problem I guess," she said. "But control is."

"Look anger is a big part of Yamasenken," Naiki said, whirling about to face Mara. "I can control my anger!"

Coincidentally, at about that point, the tentacles out in the harbor whipped the Behemoth around and dragged it into the harbor, spilling AS's and police cars all over the place.

****

Kurz grabbed Tessa up before her legendary clumsiness caught up to her amidst the way the impact with the huge red AS turned basically solid ground into a boiling mass of wood, concrete and metal.

"The hell is going on here?" Kurz demanded as he vaulted over some debris to more stable ground. "Where did those tentacles come from."

"I think they're from Miss Satomi," Tessa said as she set her feet down on the ground and seperated from Mr. Weber.

The world had that same twisting, inside out quality she felt before, only it had been much more extreme to start, just before the tentacles appeared. In addition, the spiral was spinning towards two points instead of one.

Both points were up over a crane to the side of the battle.

Now, the feeling was sustained but somewhat muted. It was background to the normal world, sort of a strange overlay of things.

Sousuke glanced over the debris ahead to watch the situation.

"That's not good," Sousuke said. "Eija mentioned a 'curse' on her family involving magic."

"No worry there," Tessa said, shaking her head. "The link was normal. She's just very, very mad. And what she's using is just going to be a delaying tactic if that thing's pilot get's settled."

"Then we have another problem," Sousuke said with a sigh.

"We need a better weapon to handle this," Tessa said.

****

"The hell is going on?!" Mao shouted out as she worked frantically at her controls.

She was trying to work out a landing that wasn't going to leave her with shrapnel in her gut or a leg snapped.

"Grabbed by King Mecha and tossed to a giant piece of Tako-Shishkabob," Mao grumbled as she braced herself for collision with the ground. "Damage report!"

The mecha's AI pulled up screens and reports for Mao to consider as she tried to pilot the mecha into standing. Left knee joint was crap. Right hand actuator was twitchy.

Gyros were iffy.

But she still had the AS-Assault Rifle, so she was still in the fight, sort of.

"Sergeant Major Mao here," she said. "Someone thank the fucking squid for putting me down on a bunch of I-Beams, but I'm still somewhat operational."

"We read you Sergeant Major," Sousuke's voice called out. "We think the 'squid' might be something from Satomi."

"The green-haired girl that led us here?" Mao asked.

"Affirmative," Sousuke responded.

"I have some additions to make to your performance assessment on that girl, Sagara," Mao said irritably.

****

Takuma growled as he shook his head clear and sprayed the clinging tentacles with cannon fire dispersing them into water at least temporarily.

As he did so, the AS started registering weapons impacts on the AS's armor.

"Damn it! Behemoth is supposed to be invincible!" he snapped as he registered several readings of minor damage, mostly cosmetic. "Wait, I need to focus. A shield. Yeah, a shield."

Slowly a red glow formed aside the behemoth in the shape of an old style european shield that deflect all the weapon's fire coming in at his AS.

"And thorns," Takuma said with a vicious smile as the tentacles reached out to grab him again.

****

"Tendrils of the Kraken?" Urd said as she looked over the battlefield. "Really? Biting off more than she can chew might be a little off. This goes into overkill."

She glanced across the way where she spotted Mara and someone else.

"She has an apprentice," Urd said, shaking her head. "No wonder things have been quiet."

Then the red-glow started up around the robot and the latent mass of energy she'd felt earlier confirmed itself as being definitely chi.

"By Heaven," she said quietly.

Despite Skuld's opinion to the contrary, Urd was well versed in divine and infernal history, and she knew what made mana and pishogue superior to chi.

There were two reasons.

The Nidhog and Yggdrasil networks that let gods and demons borrow each other's powers and energy through spell formulae.

The devices and machines that focused and enhanced the pishogue and mana so that there were massive amounts of energy on hand floating about the network.

Chi users existed all on their own, at least until conversion formulas were added to spells and blessed or cursed items and weapons.

But what she was seeing wasn't a conversion matrix.

"That thing has a chi-enhancing array," she whispered. She looked over to Mara again. "I renew my original statement, Mara. More than you can chew."

That said, Urd found herself a high point and started focusing her own magic.

****

Mara stared in shock as the chi shield formed to block the smaller AS's cannon fire.

More chi wrapped around the Behemoth in the shape of giant, red spikes that slashed up the Kraken tentacles as they tried to wrap around the monstrous robot again.

"That thing down there is using chi!" Naiki snapped angrily. "I spend most of my life trying to learn it and use it and build it up and some drugged out kid in a machine is putting out enough to make me look like a dim light bulb."

At least the thing that had her so freaked out had her potential apprentice flaming mad enough to make up for slack in the spell that Mara had allowed in her shock.

Anyway, had to think of that later, fight right now.

Big fight.

Big enough fight that she really wished she wasn't wearing limiters just at the moment.

As the clouds above them started to coalesce, Mara blinked and followed the trail of energy, grimacing.

Heavenly reinforcements.

Even if they were nominally on the same side in this, that complicated things.

****

Seina watched the battle in shock as the tentacles kept battering the Behemoth, rising up out of the water. Now that they couldn't grab it, they lashing out like whips, cracking the lambda-driver's shield as they dispersed.

The fact that the Behemoth was standing up to the slowing attacks of the tentacles was perhaps the most intimidating part of it.

Still, at least the tentacle's appearance had given her the chance to get away from that meddlesome old man before the Behemoth tore apart the cargo ship.

*****

Blazing mad, Takuma brought the hands of the Behemoth up toward's the sword and started swinging.

One swing dissipated several tentacles and slashed through many of surrounding structures.

****

Mara and Naiki felt their perch shake out from under them as the sword sliced through the crane they were standing on.

Mara dashed out and grabbed Naiki before the green-haired girl could tumble further downward.

"Damn it!" Naiki shouted as she lost hold of the spell and all her tentacles dissapated into water.

"Don't worry about it, student," Mara said as she brought them to the ground. "We're still in this fight."

"Hai, Geisthexe-sensei," Naiki said.

"And that hand better not be moving toward copping a feel," the demoness said.

"I'm not doing anything," the demi-goddess said. "Focus on the fight Geisthexe-sensei, you can't let yourself be distracted."

"Is reinstatement worth dealing with this?" Mara wondered quietly.

****

"This is good," Kaname said as another explosion rocked the building they were currently on.

"Are you sure?" Ranma asked. "I could get you further back before I go in."

Kaname wasn't really certain how close she had to be, but she could feel the....magic she guessed it was, from here. So she assumed this would be good.

"This is about how close we were to Sousuke's fight before," Eija noted.

"All right," Ranma said. "I'm going in to help, call my cell phone if you have an answer."

****

"Okay, squid looks out of it," Mao said as she took aim. "Lambda driver needs the target to be aware of the attack right?"

"That's correct, Sergeant Major," Tessa said over the radio she was handed.

"Well, I'd rather have Kurz in my AS right now," she said. "But we'll see if I can get a few sniped shots in before I have to abandon AS."

She continued looking for a good shot when she noticed where the Behemoth was turning.

"Sousuke, Kurz!" she shouted. "Get the captain out of there!"

****

Smiling broadly, Takuma watched his mysterious adversary vanish into mere water and started walking back toward the ruined harbor, taking a moment to blast away at the Japanese AS's with a few well placed canon fire bursts.

He climbed up on land with slow, burdensome steps, eager to get away from the water in case the tentacles returned.

Then the Behemoth's AS zeroed in on an image that it had gleaned from its pilot's frenzied mind.

Takuma almost instantly turned his head toward the monitor and the image of Tessa Testarosa fleeing the area with two men in crash-suits.

Even with the very limited exposure to Tessa that he'd had and a few brief conversations while that green-haired bitch stood guard, Takuma had developed an...interest in the lavender haired genius.

A rather unhealthy interest.

"There she is," he growled. "The girl who didn't notice my feelings."

The Behemoth moved forward with clear intent.

He was distracted as his computers registered another weapon impact in its back. A second weapon impact and functional damage was done to his right arm's elbow.

The sword full out of his AS's hand and crashed to the ground with an metal shearing sound that clattered through the ears of everyone present.

Then he slammed the lambda driver field around his entire mech, resisting the driving headache that brought him.

Growling he started to twist his head to face the attacker, launching a blast toward the crippled M9 it had had in hand earlier. The AS rolled mostly out of the way, but Takuma was amused to see that the thing's left side was obliterated.

when the cameras caught sight of the anomalous image of a red-haired woman charging forward toward him with what the computer was clocking at inhuman speeds.

"Please," Takuma growled as he fired the canon at the image.

****

Ranma stared up at the monster in front of her.

A huge machine, somehow making use of chi. Very clumsy, brute force use, but definitely use.

The burst of gunfire from the head pointed roughly in her direction warned her that the thing had taken notice of her.

"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken Kansei!" she shouted.

The original amaguriken only enhanced the speed of her hands and arms, and only partially sped up her mind to be able to accurately place each strike. The full body amaguriken applied that speed of thought and body as whole.

Unfortunately, she could only do it in short bursts or she'd drain herself. That technique was easily the most chi-intensive technique she had.

Suddenly, all about her, movement slowed to almost a crawl. Only the supersonic shells streaking toward her showed much of anything resembling real speed.

Leaping upward, Ranma stepped forward onto the first shield, quietly counting to herself as she pushed herself from that shell to another, to another in a swirling procession up the channel of hot bullets.

"Hiryu Hyo Toppa!" she shouted before launching herself straight out away from the column of bullets.

A sigh of relief flowed through her body as she released the full body chestnut technique and was treated to the image of a tornado spear up through the column of bullets, taking them with it and colliding with the Behemoth's head, blowing a quarter of the AS's skull away.

Ranma also realized that she'd blown the cannon away. Which meant that she was unlikely to get another use of the hiryu shoten ha. She was unlikely to get tight enough a spiral with anything else to do with the monstrous thing.

As Ranma landed some hundred yards away, taking in what she had managed, a blast of powerful lightning struck downwards into the lambda driver field that the hiryu shoten ha had momentarily subverted and was just now recovering.

The lightning coruscated over the red field causing the monster to shudder and shiver for several moments.

****

"Well, looks like God's on our side," Kurz said as he stopped his most recent borrowed vehicle some blocks away. "Any word on how to handle this?"

"The Danaan said the Arbalest would be here soon," Sousuke noted. "Until then, all we have on hand is my personelle defense weapon and your sniper rifle."

Tessa leaned against the wall near here and shook her head.

It was hard to focus with all the interference around her, then she felt something...or rather someone.

Someone she'd Resonated with only once before and only briefly.

_Miss Chidori,_ she thought clearly.

_Who are you?_ came the response.

_This is Captain Telarossa,_ a third, unlooked for presence stated. _I recognize the voice_

ICaptain...[/I] Kaname started to respond

_Never mind, we need to find a weakness and fast._

****

"Good one, Urd," Mara muttered. "Okay, kid, you've got an idea of what you're doing? You know how to use that spell?"

"I've got it," Naiki said. "Attack the field, crack it open. Do you know how much chi that is?"

"Oh, I know all right," Mara said, though it was followed by a particular thought. "Damn it, I'm class 1 demoness, but I'm not a war demon."

"Searing ashes of of Nifelheim," Naiki intoned firmly. "Empower my strikes and weapons to smite my enemy."

"Mastery of treachery and fire," Mara said with a grimace, and all the fires in her sight flared brightly as she spoke. "Your disciple seeks your power again."

****

Urd watched from where she was building another lightning strike to see smoke rise up and engulf the Behemoth as it scanned about looking for something.

Then several black curving shapes whipped out through the air into the amorphous cloud of blinding ash and smoke, each one crashing into the chi-shield with a brilliant red flash that spoke of a slowly weakening defense.

"I think we've got this," Urd smirked as her lightning crashed down again.

****

Seina hefted the weapon in her hand and traced the black sickle blades to their source and found, to her surprise a pair of women, one was really nothing more than a girl, without any apparent weapons.

One was chanting, the red-tattoos on her face flaring brightly, and the other was hurling those black blades at the Behemoth.

Unable to cope with what she was seeing, Seina let her obsession for revenge take over and lifted the weapon she'd gotten hold of.

The first burst caught the blonde in the shoulder, and then the green-haired one was looking her way, enraged.

Seina peppered the charging figure with fire but was horrified to see several definite hits just ricochet off as the girl charged her position, moving at inhuman speed.

Launching one of those black crescents ahead of her, the green-haired school girl leaped upward at Seina's position.

It was only the necessity for dodging that crescent that had Seina moving in time to avoid Naiki's pounce, leaving a grenade in her wake.

Rolling aside, Seina was up and moving at a run as Naiki turned to follow her deliberately, taking the time to stare at the running foe, still futiley throwing back bursts of automatic fire.

And then she saw the grenade and kicked it up into the air between her and the fleeing woman.

The explosion between them threw both girls away with brutal force, though Naiki was able to roll herself clear of the worst of it and come to a landing. She couldn't see what had happened to Seina.

The young terrorist landed painfully in the water and started swimming away, smirking as she saw the Behemoth walking forward.

****

_The problem is even when we find a weakness,_ Kaname noted. _with all the surprise attacks..._

_The lambda driver and pilot have shorn up all their weaknesses,_ Tessa finished. _Too bad we can't attack that confidence._

_Actually..._ Eija's mental voice noted as the girl watched what was developing.

****

"Damn it," Ranma grimaced as she noticed the black-magic enhanced Kijin Ran's were no longer in the fight. "That could have gotten it given time."

Black magic though.

Naiki was getting a talking to.

And so was whoever it was that was teaching her daughter and helping her in this fight.

Another lightning strike came down, but when it slammed into the lambda driver's chi field this time, it didn't have near the effect.

Chi was based on strength of will. They hadn't been able to overwhelm this monster, and whoever was at the center of it was getting more confident as a result. It was turning into a battle of attrition which they would probably win only at the cost of much of the city.

Ranma slipped into the Goshin Dai Ryûsei Fu, the invisibility technique of the Umisen. Then she darted forward under the Behemoth, grabbing a tarp from a turned over truck as she moved. he let the Amaguriken-Kansei fade as she arrived.

"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken Kansei!" she shouted. "Yasha Tankai Ho!"

Whipping about at nearly imperceptible speeds, she gathered debris into the tarp around her. At this speed, she was even able to loosen the concrete into sand as she wound about the Behemoth and leapt up into the sky above leaping more and more and more above it until the massive form of the debris filled tarp was hanging over the robot.

She let the full chestnut fade and released the Umisenken's final attack at her normal speed before diving into that draining speed again, sweat streaming around her as she hit the bottom and, all along the way released Kijin-Gun Dai Ranbu's all about the Behemoth, providing the void that the Yasha Tankai Ho needed to complete the technique.

The chi master was pushing the edge of her strength now as she landed and felt the Yasha Tankai Ho and the Kijin Ran's combine into a force dragging all loose matter around the Behemoth inward.

Ranma didn't expect to do too much damage with this, but perhaps she could shake that confidence and slow it down a little.

If she let the full chestnut go this time, she wouldn't be able to go back in without a substantial rest.

Still in full chestnut speed she hit the nearest of the eight directions and twisted in the bursting heat of the smoke about the monster before forming the first spiral, then crisscrossing to the opposite and so on until she was directly under the Behemoth.

Voids above her were slowly, to her perception, forming and in all eight directions hot chi was spiraling in individual twisters that spiralled in with each other.

****

Urd blinked, there was a chi-master down there trying to damage this thing. The chi output was much smaller compared to what the machine was putting out, but it didn't have near the unfocused nature that the machine did.

"That would be Miss Satomi," Urd said, remembering the very brief and near even exchange the woman had had with Morrigan.

Granted, Morrigan had been wearing limiters, just like Urd and, judging by the lack of a flash fried robot, Mara had. But the limiters basically brought a goddess down to just their own inherent mana and whatever spells they could cast to borrow other powers.

Still, even as she watched the high speed manipulations, she couldn't see what the point was.

The woman would have been better off doing like she and Mara were, and unleashing a barrage of constant attacks.

Ranma was expelling a lot of energy to basically pelt the Behemoth's chi shield with debris. Then the Kijin-Gun Dai Ranbo's started, blinking into experience with insane speed, the flying debris and vacuum blade dances forming gravity wells that would soon be slamming the shields with intense force.

Finally, the smoke Mara's spell carried around the Behemoth swirled about it into eight interlocking and forming twists below.

It was still less than three seconds since the whole thing had started.

Then finally she heard the cry.

"Hachi Houkou Hiryu Shoten Senken!" she shouted.

Eight Directions Flying Dragon Ascension Thousand Fists.

Urd had barely any space of time to figure out that Ranma had spent the entire past moments setting up this one chi manipulation.

And then the Behemoth rose into the air, riding eight tornadoes swirling into a coiled windstorm that was pulled off the ground by a multitude of growing black spheres that pulled in close to each other, trying to crush the Behemoth between them while succeeding in twisting the eight tornadoes into a single black ball of wind, ash and debris.

Urd was capable of similar shows with her own power, even with a limiter. She had passed her first class license test, even if she refused the promotion. But, with the limiters that would wipe her out.

She could only assume that Ranma was in similar straights.

Forgetting her next lightning strike, Urd dived downward as Ranma's attack started running out of steam and the Behemoth crashed downward.

The goddess spotted the red-headed woman trying to catch her breath and gather herself to move, too slowly, and whipped past grabbing her out from under the monstrous robot.

****

Takuma stared at his monitors, one of them black from when the head had been damaged somehow, another cracked from whatever that had been that had just hit him.

His focus was suffering and he could tell that his shield was flickering all over his Behemoth as he pulled himself out of the water filled crater his fall had left.

He had a snapped rip that was threatening to puncture a lung at any point, but he didn't know that. All he knew was that his chest hurt like fire.

Standing up, his remaining monitors scanned through the few undamaged scanners and found, to his rage, that red-head being dropped off on a building by some sort of flying woman.

Angrily, the urge to destroy built up in him.

****

Mara stared, impressed as she pulled herself away from the field. Naiki backing off with her, eyes scanning about.

The girl was making sure her teacher wasn't ambushed again.

Mara smirked out the sentiment.

"That is probably the only use of pure chi I've seen match up to a Class 1 spell," Mara noted with a whistle.

"What have we been doing," Naiki asked.

"We shared a class 1, I supplied most of the power and gave you the control," Mara said, checking her injury and wiping her brow of sweat. "Since then, Class 3. I'm tired, and I'm not sure what you can handle on your own."

"What's class 2?" Naiki asked.

"Did you see those lightning bolts?" Mara asked.

"There's another demon out there?" Naiki said in surprise.

"Something like that," Mara noted.

"So, it's down now right?" Naiki asked, eyeing where Mara was bleeding, watching a parachute start landing in the distance for some reason.

"No such luck," Mara said. "That machine there is magnifying the power of whoever's in it. If I had to guess, I'd say we're basically trying to deal with an average 2nd class god or demon not wearing limiters."

"Umm, right," Naiki said.

"Enough power to level a France sized portion of the Himalayas," Mara said simply.

"But you're first class!" Naiki protested.

"With limiter!" the demoness said, pointing to her earrings. "Gods and Demons with limiters aren't much different than powerful chi-users. I need permission to drop it."

"Is that why the bullets hurt you?" the demi-goddess asked.

"Not right now, kid," Mara said. "It's moving again. Kid? Naiki?"

Mara turned to look at her to-be apprentice and watched as the girl's eyes fade out, as if not seeing the world around her.

"The hell?" Mara said, and then her eyes widened. "Oh crap!"

****

Eija blinked as the world around them vanished into whispers and strange symbols again. Suddenly, she looked about and saw the nude forms of Tessa and Kaname focusing hard on their task, so hard they didn't seem to notice the shift to that mental frame work.

Suddenly, across from her, she saw the sea-green skinned and blue-eyed form of her sister, glancing about in surprise and shock.

_The hell?_ her sister said.

_Naiki!_ Eija called out.

The mental projection of the sharkish Satomi turned to find Eija's jet-black, red-eyed body standing close at guard behind Kaname's form.

_What is this place_ Naiki asked.

_It's a mindscape,_ Eija explained. ITessa and Kaname are 'resonating' together to find how to beat this thing./i

Naiki looked to the other two mental forms, the two pale skinned girls who looked as they did in the real world, save nude. The other Satomi was in the process of committing the sights to memory when she noticed that Kaname and Tessa's forms were coming closer together.

_Eija! Keep them from touching!_ Naiki shouted, reaching forward to grab Tessa's spirit and start to pull.

_What?!_ Eija asked. _Why?_

_I don't know!_ Naiki said, struggling with Tessa's form and at times being dragged forward. _But Tessa said too much resonating was bad! Just grab Kaname!_

Eija nodded and shifted forward smoothly to easily lay hold of Kaname's soul and pull it way from Naiki and Tessa in a motion that looked as easy as breathing.

Naiki felt more than a slight pang of envy at that, but for the moment, she was more concerned with keeping Tessa seperate from Kaname.

Eija shrieked then, as she watched the hand she was using to push Kaname back started to turn white and some of her black slip into the blue-haired girl.

Concerned herself, Naiki turned about to see one of her hands likewise bleeding its color into Tessa, even as the sub-captain's partially bled into her.

Then both Whispered's eyes snapped open.

_Got it!_

_I'll tell Sousuke!_

_All right, Miss Chidori, let's go._

And then the mind-scape vanished for all four.

****

Sousuke was moving toward the canister and setting up arbalest when his cell phone rang.

He checked the number and saw that it was Kaname. For a moment he thought about not answering, but perhaps it was something important, like that pervert attacking again. Something he'd have to deal with immediately on finishing this monstrosity.

"Miss Chidori, hello," Sousuke said calmly as he slipped into the cockpit. "Is everything oh..."

"There's a cooling system," Kaname said.

"What are you talking about?" Sousuke asked nervously.

"The Behemoth," Kaname said. "Tessa and I found it's weak point. There's a cooling system for the lambda driver in the thing's groin. Take that out and the lambda driver shuts down, the Behemoth is too heavy to move on its own."

"The groin?" Sousuke asked in confirmation.

"That's right," Kaname said. "You'll have to use the lambda driver for the attack. Nothing else is getting through."

"Affirmative," Sousuke said grimmly.

"It'll be a slit, left or right," Kaname said. "Either one will do."

"So basically..." Sousuke hesitated to continue.

"Yeah, kick it in the nuts," Kaname said viciously. "And do it HARD! Sousuke! Do you hear me?!"

"Affirmative," the mercenary said as the arbalest finished starting up. "Beginning attack run."

****

Urd blinked as a wave a chi started flashing toward her position.

The tired red-head she'd rescued stood up, her breath mostly caught and whirled her arms in swift circles.

"Kijin Toku!" she shouted, continuing to swing her arms about as a black shield came into being in front of her.

The red chi from the Behemoth slammed into the shield of vacuum, threatning, and, even if Ranma had managed to successfully give herself and Urd protection in her "Fierce-God Shelter", the building they were standing on should have been blown away.

Urd was nothing if not a quick learner and willing to experiment, however.

Also, she had not yet tired herself as thoroughly as either Ranma or Mara had.

She reached quickly through all the magic she could find and, borrowing the Yggdrasil readings of the phenomena in front of her, improvised a much wider shield.

"Now, that's not fair," Ranma said as she leapt away and looked towards the edges where Urd's shield hadn't protected the building from the lambda-chi blast.

"Excuse me, who was braiding tornadoes earlier?" Urd asked, breathing hard herself as she flew backwards away from the Behemoth.

****

Takuma slammed his fist down as his targets got away...again and then turned toward a threat assessment to see an AS heading his way.

Laughing uproariously at the absurdity of his powerful Behemoth being taken apart by such foes as unequipped men and women and old AS's, he lurched his machine forward to meet the attack by just outright smashing the white machine heading his way.

It seemed that was the new AS's intention as well, to die, smashed under Behemoth's foot, as it slid under the red monstrosity and fired a single lambda enhanced blast.

And then failure messages starting erupting all over his machine.

****

Sousuke rolled his AS into a standing position and bolted away to avoid the falling Behemoth. That hadn't required near the effort that beating Gauron had. Perhaps this Behemoth's lambda driver hadn't been as powerful.

Of course, another part of him said. It could also have had to do with how much of a beating the machine took before I got a credible shot at it.

****

Mara looked up from where Naiki was coming too, glancing toward where the Behemoth was finally falling.

Another chi-enhancing array armed into a suit. Granted this chi-enhancer was much more reasonable than that monstrosity, but still, it meant that this was more than just a fluke.

As did Naiki's current condition.

Human Chi had evolved into a Network, and there was no telling how many elements there were in it right now.

A quick check of Naiki told the demoness that the demi-goddess wasn't an element in a network yet, but she'd closely resonated with someone lacking necessary protections.

The personality bleed was starting already.

Right now it was just surface thoughts, occasional memories, but if Mara didn't do something soon, she was going to lose her recruit to this new human network. And the girl would lose her identity.

****

_Phew,_ Kaname thought. _Glad that's over._

_So am I,_ Eija returned.

Both girls froze and turned, almost simultaneously, to stare at each other.

"Eija-chan?" Kaname said tightly. "Isn't time you get out of my head?"

"I...I don't know what's going," Eija noted. _I'm not a true telepath, what's happening?_

"Well I certainly don't know," Kaname returned. _Wait was that a thought or a spoken sentence?_

_I can hear both unless I focus on blocking you out,_ Eija answered. "It doesn't matter."

As the two girls were coming to that realization a red-headed woman dropped down in front of the girls, followed by the white-haired woman from the train station.

_Isn't she the one that jumped into the TV?_ Kaname asked, eyebrow twitching as her weird meter progressed closer to explosion now that life and death weren't an issue.

"Are you girls all right?" Ranma asked wearily.

They looked at each other nervously, Kaname taking on an expression similar to the one she had been wearing when trying to get Eija to the nurses's office without alerting the other girl's family.

"We're sort of...hearing each other," Eija said.

Ranma frowned as he investigated their chi flows and noticed, yes, it was flowing together slightly, though possibly capable of getting stronger later.

Behind the red-headed martial artist, Urd frowned and stepped forward, staring very closely as she opened her palm top keyboard again.

"Remember what I said about merging personalities?" Urd said.

"You mean about Morrigan used to being 3 goddesses?" Ranma asked nervously.

"Looks like there is a chi network after all," Urd said. "And she's part of it."

Urd pointed to Kaname.

"Me? What are you talking about networks?" Kaname asked nervously.

Urd turned with a serious face toward Kaname.

"Your personality is slowly blending with hers," Urd said. "Right now you're picking up each other's surface thoughts. Soon it will be impossible to shut them out. After that, memories will start to bleed over. Then quirks. Eventually, neither Kaname Chidori nor Eija Satomi will exist, instead they will be replaced by a single personality that is both of you and neither of you at the same time."

"H...how do we stop it?" Kaname and Eija both asked at once, flinching as they did.

"If you were both pure human," Urd said. "Or were both full elements in the network, then we couldn't do anything...but..."

"But what?" Ranma asked.

"But Eija's a demi-goddess," Urd said. "If she's willing to come with me to Asgard, she can become a full goddess, including firewalls that will keep both her and Kaname from blending too severely."

"Demi-goddess!?" Kaname snapped, turning toward Eija. "Demi-goddess?!"

"Don't look at me," the girl said. "I hadn't heard of this before either."

Kaname shouted her frustration into the sky, gripping the bridge of her nose.

Ranma crossed her arms in silence.

"Would I have to stay up there?" Eija asked.

"No," Urd said. "You'd be expected to finish out your life-span here, actually. At the very least, before taking regular residence above."

"Is there any other way?" Ranma asked.

"You'd have to kill one of them," Urd said. "And even then, that soul might try to rush the process."

Ranma sat down and sighed before looking towards where she thought she felt Naiki and her apparent teacher.

"I..."

"Okaasan," Eija said. "Go find Naiki, I...I know what I'm going to do."

"You don't have to do this on my account," Kaname said. "Well, I guess it's our account...really....we're both gone otherwise..."

Eija smirked at that.

"She'll be back by tomorrow or the next day," Urd said, understanding the decision.

"Urd," Ranma said darkly. "If I don't get my girl back and healthy and herself. Someone's paying."

"No one's going to hurt her," Urd said. "You have my word."

****

Tessa was walking toward the Behemoth when she heard parts of a similar conversation.

_Naiki! No!_ she thought.

_I'm not joining Hell,_ the reckless Satomi said. _This is just the only way to keep you and me from doing a creepy twin thing._

_Naiki, there's another..._ Tessa sighed as she felt the other girl forcefully block thoughts from reaching the demi-goddess.

****

"This doesn't mean I have to stay in Hell, right?" Naiki asked.

"The longer you think about it, the more chance you have of absorbing your friend over there," Mara noted. "And yes, you'll be back here in a day or two."

"This isn't changing sides or anything," Naiki asked.

"Delays again?" Mara reminded the girl. "And there are demons that serve in Heaven. Besides, we can't change your god half, you'll be half-demon, half-god."

The demoness left unmentioned the favors Naiki had already worked up, nor what favors she'd accrue for the transformation.

Really, bringing Naiki in now as too soon. But the Resonance had rushed the issue.

It just meant they'd have to still be extra careful while training her. The line hadn't been crossed yet, and just a change of species wasn't going to push Mara over it.

If anything, and Mara could already hear Hild's lecture, this early transformation was just as likely as to ruin the whole plan and even if rogue and ascended demons were nothing new any longer, recruiting a human early only to have them switch sides, or even just stop being an element in the system, in a month or so was damn embarassing.

She wouldn't be able to treat Naiki like a common new hire.

Instead, she'd still be having to sweet talk the deal and explain the situation.

Besides, the link Naiki had to one of the element's of this Human network made her doubly valuable now.

"I'll go," Naiki said.

"Good," Mara responded with relief.

The blonde woman caught a glimpse of a red-head landed in their general area as she weaved her powers and smoke started to cover the two.

"Naiki!" Ranma shouted rushing forward.

Surprised, the demi-goddess turned to her mother and waved.

"'Kaasan," she shouted. "I'll be back soon."

"Two days, Saotome," Mara confirmed with a smirk. "I'll keep her safe until she comes back then."

Then the smoke covered them both and, as Ranma dashed through, that was all that there was.

Growling angrily at her lack of speed, body and chi drained by the fight. Ranma mentally promised that blonde woman pain the next time Ranma saw her.

****

Ranma came up beside Urd as the white-haired woman watched Eija and Kaname speak to Sousuke.

"I thought you were collecting another daughter," Urd said.

"Some blonde chick with red-tattoos took her away," Ranma said dangerously. "Anybody you know?"

"Red...you mean red marks?" Urd said in surprise. "Like mine?"

"Exactly," Ranma said, voice low and threatening. "So what are Gods doing kidnapping my girl?"

Urd didn't doubt that the woman would be able to do some damage to her before she did anything like teleport away.

"That wasn't a God," Urd said. "That was a Demoness. Did she say anything as she left?"

"She said she'd keep Naiki safe for two days and bring her back," Ranma said quietly. "You said demon?"

"Mara's an old friend of mine," Urd admited. "If she said she'll keep Naiki safe, then she means it. There'll be something up her sleeve, but she'll keep Naiki as safe as she can."

"A demon, keep someone safe?" Ranma asked for clarification.

"When they say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions," Urd explained. "They don't just mean the humans that side with the demons. Most of the demons think what they do is in the best interest of everybody. Just like humans and gods, only a few are intentional assholes."

"Unfortunately the assholes stand out," Ranma muttered.

Across the way Sergeant Major Mao shuffled wearily into the scene with Lieutenant Commander Kalinin leaning on her shoulder.

****

"It's only for one or two days," Eija said. "Until this...problem can be fixed."

"I'll make sure to collect your assignments then," Sousuke said after some hesitation.

He gathered that there was an injury of some sort. Somehow the girls' minds had been injured and in order to protect both...Eija had to leave for a time?

Watching, he noted as both girls shook their heads, as if both realizing the same thing at once.

"Miss Chidori and I will be seeing you in two days then," Sousuke said firmly. "And we will discuss modifying my miniatures as suggested."

Each time he said will, it came with the staccato firmness of thunderbolt.

"And if we can't find you at school or home," Kaname added with a smirk.

"Then we will find you where-ever you are," Sousuke finished.

Flushing brilliantly, Eija started to bow to the other two, but stopped midway and lunged across to hug them both, to the surprise and momentary discomfort of Sousuke.

Kaname had more warning given her current mental link, which she wasn't choosing to block at the moment, but still let Eija hug anyway.

****

At the Satomi home, Deimosu hesitated at the door to his family's home.

There was something...strange about his decision to leave like this, with just a note explaining things.

There was something very strange.

He couldn't quite place his finger on it, but it had to do with the continuing reverbation of the Furies' voices in his ears.

The longer he tried to figure it out, the more the answer seemed to slip from him. He was certain now, that he was making some sort of mistake, but he couldn't be certain what that mistake was.

He seemed to remember that leaving felt like a mistake, but now it seemed more like waiting was.

The young man growled and shook his head angrily.

Why couldn't everything be simple?!

He had to get revenge for his mother!

That's what was simple. That was what he needed to focus on.

Was that even his own thought?

"Over course it is!" Deimosu declared. "Who else could be thinking for me?"

No, he had to go now, before this silly confusion spread.

Deimosu walked out the door.

****

"You almost lost him," Hecate noted to the Furies as they stared into their scrying pool.

"He is strong minded," one of the three said.

"We cannot bind him," followed the second.

"He will escape our spell before two weeks have past," the last predicted.

"And by that time he should be well on the path we want him," Hecate said with a smile.

****

Okaasan,

I know about the people that attacked you. I know you wouldn't want me to go seeking them out, because I was listening when you spoke to Akane Saotome.

But I can't let it sit.

These...things...must be punished, and I have it under authority that the punishment's they'll receive from their own kind aren't nearly severe enough.

I'll be fine.

After all, you've been training us for this.

Even if you don't want us to do it.

Your son, Deimosu.

****

It was the next day, after an empty night in her house, that Ranma called Zhuge Shen.

All about her, the house was in shambles, her children's rooms untouched by the catastrophe that had been her fear and sadness turned to rage upon finding Deimosu's note.

Now, she turned her thoughts toward the Mithril job.

Access to reports from all over Japan and probably other regions of Asia. Possibly access to information from other regions around the world.

Most of her time, Shen had said, would be spent picking talent and organizing job offers rather than actually going on missions.

"Zhuge-san," she said quietly. "I have a condition."

It was a few minutes later when she shut the phone closed and looked about the warehouse.

"I'll need to have this cleaned before Eija and Naiki get back," she muttered so quietly, that one wondered if she said anything at all. "Need to buy new furniture while I'm at it."

****************************

AN:

I tried to make it obvious that Mara considered Naiki's recruitment incomplete and that even if they have some by contract holds on her, that they'd want to make sure she would stay of her own volition.

that she would decide it was the best choice.

right now, Mara is basically realizing that Naiki is going to get something of an eyeful and she isn't sure how much that will affect her decision.

she's half afraid of Naiki going rogue soon after or even switching sides.

basically, everything is screaming "too early" and "no choice" at the same time

This is basically the end of the second act or so.....where all three kids have not quite chosen their paths, but stepped on to them.


	12. Aftermaths of Seperation

Eija stared around her at the lush green paradise that was heaven. In the distance she could see snow mountains, but here, in front of her was a beautiful green park in the middle of a host of buildings built in an endless variety of styles, and yet not appearing out of place.

As she stared around, she was reminded of the country kids that came in and saw Athens for the first time.

Or how she felt coming into Tokyo for that matter.

Only on a much, much higher degree.

The middle of it all, a massive tree grew up through the middle of the landscape.

"Let's go," Urd said, pointing down the path out of the park and towards a high rising spire that looked like it belonged in some sort of temple. "That's the main offices. We'll need to head to immigrations."

Urd was typing on a full sized holographic keyboard as they walked.

"What are you doing?" Eija asked.

"I'm sending word ahead as to what's going on," Urd said, then she frowned. "Kali's going to meet us in Frigga's office."

"Excuse me," the demi-goddess said. "Would that be Kali, who the thugees worship."

"She gets that a lot," Urd said with a smile. "But she's not the weird one, Kali heads up immigration. Frigga's my boss at the Helper Goddess Office."

"And what do you do there?" Eija asked.

"We maintain Yggdrasil," Urd said, pointing toward the huge tree that held in the center of the world. "That's the physical element, but the important part is all of us, our minds. That provides power, keeps records of events, memories and spells, but without the gods it's just a tree."

"And without it, the Gods are just powerful chi-users?" Eija asked.

"Mana, actually," Urd said. "But that covers it. We make sure the network and everybody in it stays secure, healthy and working properly. Actually your..."

Urd hesitated and closed her mouth.

"My father works there," Eija said quietly.

"Other mother, actually," Urd said.

That caught Eija by surprise.

"Okassan never talks about our...other parent," Eija said. "I asked once and she only said we'd have to be ready. I assumed that she was..."

"Do you want to talk about this now, with me?" Urd asked. "Or do you want to ask your mother about it?"

"Right," Eija said. "I should talk to her first."

"Why don't we trade anecdotes on the way then," Urd said with a smirk.

So saying, Urd went into a story about her youngest sister and some sort of robotics contest with the sister of their middle sister's boyfriend. It ended with the young goddess destroying both machines instead of losing, resulting in a draw.

It didn't take much longer past that story for them to reach their destination.

The building was bigger than most cities Eija had heard of, but it didn't look like that from outside. Even inside, the young dark-haired girl only had a vague impression of the size of the building. Things like hallways that extended for miles, or windows that opened up on conference rooms the size of stadiums.

There were a few more anecdotes, several involving a demon women named Mara. Things about bugs in booze, blast flowers in apology bouquets and contests of ping-pong, video games and karaoke.

And a story about how this demon woman Mara split her into two parts.

"She was wanting, I guess, a me to hang out with all the time," Urd said. "Instead of just when our jobs brought us in on opposite sides or when we took some vacation. Of course, she didn't expect my demon-side to go on a rampage, seems splitting a person's personality into two parts makes for unstable people. Belldandy ended up making her stay in the temple for two days until she healed up afterward."

Eija knew the reason for those stories and had to smile at the thought behind them. She'd heard, before they left, that her sister had gone off with a demon, the same demon Urd was now talking about.

It definitely concerned her, but having a more complete picture of the demoness in question made her slightly more comfortable.

The office Urd led her to looked something like the bridge of a starcraft from a TV show. Two women were inside, a tall Indian woman and a blonde Scandanavian behind a desk.

Even if Kali hadn't been in an Indian appearance, Eija was able to recognize her from the feeling of death that hung around the destroyer.

It dwarfed her own.

The blonde woman had a much more motherly aura to her, but there was more than a hint of a warrior underneath the warm exterior. It reminded Eija of her own mother, actually.

"So, what's going on here?" Urd asked coming in.

"Urd, when will you ever learn to mind your manners?" Frigga asked, she turned toward Eija with a smile. "Would you mind waiting for..."

"This has to do with her, Frigga," Kali interrupted. "She has the right to stay."

The blonde turned a clearly disapproving eye toward Kali.

"I would appreciate it if you did not dictate terms to me in my own office," Frigga said coolly. "But I suppose you are correct."

"Excuse me," Eija said. "What's going on?"

Frigga turned toward Urd.

"Morrigan came by with Horus and Tyr looking for Hecate," Frigga said. "Unfortunately, she'd already left."

"Left?" Urd said.

"From what we can tell," Frigga said. "When you started uploading Miss Satomi's data, she started obscuring her own file and then left."

"Wouldn't that make her magic weak like it did to me?" Eija asked.

"We've also found tracks in her recent system logs to show that she's ordered the release of a virtual arsenal in devices out of the vault," Frigga said. "Enough spell tools, personal focusing items and enhancing devices that she could probably do without accessing more than her personal powers and mana."

"Long story short," Kali said. "She's taken herself out of the system and equipped herself to compensate."

"You leave those things in a vault instead of using them?" Eija asked.

"They're from before we used devices to focus and enhance the network itself," Urd explained. "They're obsolete to anybody that isn't rogue. They're saying Hecate's been planning a leavetaking connected to your family getting found."

Eija took in a deep breath as she realized that Hecate was her other mother.

"Indeed," Kali said. "And we want to make sure she didn't leave any surprises behind that could be detrimental to our new hire's life-span."

A chill went down Eija's spine.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"You'd probably call it a curse," Frigga said. "We tend to use the more up to date term: virus. The mind is like a computer you see, and Yggdrasil is basically a mass of minds linked together. Powerful minds with access to incredible powers. And a virus is basically a renegade bit of instruction that causes our computers up here to give wrong commands." She pointed to her head.

"Hecate was one of our best security staff here," Kali said. "According to both Frigga and Urd there, among others. She probably knows more about viruses than anyone in Yggdrasil that isn't a demon, and she probably knows more than a lot of the demons who've defected."

"You're saying," Eija said, hands clinched tightly. "That this...person took..." she grimaced and didn't say much further. "That she cursed me...gave me a virus...despite the fact that I'm her..."

"Hecate's plans are long-spanning," Kali said. "She's not prone to the sort of thrills that motivated the oth-"

Urd gave a quick gesture and Kali cut off.

"Others," Eija thought.

She really had to talk to her mother.

"Regardless," Frigga said. "She's been purposefully delaying the Eyes of Ra from finding your mother, hiding your existence from Heaven and Hell and generally playing dangerous games with people's lives in all three worlds."

"What do I have to do?" Eija asked.

"You're going to have to sit in a chair for several hours while people scan you down to the soul," Urd said.

"That sounds...tedious," the dark-haired Satomi said.

"For all concerned," Frigga agreed. "Kali has called in a few of our resident demons to consult on this."

"Kishimo-jin," Kali said in confirmation. "and Tlazolteotl."

"And who from our department?" Urd asked.

"I was thinking you, Peorth and Kuan Yin," Frigga said.

"Shouldn't we get started?" Eija asked. "I seem to have this...Resonance thing."

"Reso...oh yes, the spirit merger," Frigga said. "You weren't clear on what was occuring there, Urd. Is she merging with one of her siblings, or another demi-god? If so you should have brought them with you as well."

"No, she's merging with a human," Urd said.

Both the other goddesses stared at her blankly, Frigga obviously thinking there was a poorly thought out joke in that comment.

"Humans have developed a chi network," Urd said and the goddess's eyes widened. "It's primitive, no safeguards. Eija here is close friends with one of the Elements."

"A third network," Kali said. "Well, that changes things."

"Indeed," Frigga said. "I'll call in your sister, Belldandy of course, for the virus scans then. Urd, you'll be reporting your findings on this chi-network to the department heads."

Urd winced at the fact that she'd just gotten herself a long tiring meeting.

"Is there something wrong?" Eija asked cautiously. "Kaname's a nice person."

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the other women.

"It requires caution," Kali said. "No one seriously considered this a possibility for another few hundred years, so we're a little behind in planning. We're not going to hurt your friend, Eija Satomi. And that is a promise."

Eija nodded at that, promising herself that she would make sure of that.

****

"Welcome to Nifelheim," Mara said as the smoke dissapated.

"Okay, this is not what I expected," Naiki noticed as she looked around.

At the moment, the demi-goddess was helping support Mara.

"Oh, really?" Mara asked as she looked aruond at the red skies filled with black clouds.

Trailing down from some imperceptible height were reaching tendrils that reminded Naiki of the roots of an upturned tree. In the midst of the strongest of the roots coiled the vague form of a tremendous serpent.

Around them was a wild area, overgrown with bushes and weeds amongst twisted trees. Naiki heard a creepy giggling and occasional saw childish faces peeking out from amongst the foliage.

Here and there, fires burned up through the ground, disgorging a thick smoke that had Naiki's eyes and nose stinging, but there were railings around those fire pits, well out from the heat. Obviously meant to keep onlookers from getting too close. Aside from the skies and those fires, however, Naiki was finding that Hell wasn't that...well, hellish.

A little ways further out, the demi-goddess could see a tumble of buildings not much different than she'd seen in cities and towns before, though there was a lack of unity in some regards. Each building just seemed to be doing its own thing regardless of its neighbors.

"We don't exactly have Heaven's living standards," Mara said. "But we're not primitives."

"Umm, is there a hospital?" Naiki asked, noting that Mara was still bleeding from the three wounds that woman had managed to give her.

"It looks worse than it is, kid," Mara said.

There was a couple of seconds of silence after that.

"It's down that road," Mara said. "Looks like a cross between a monastery and a mad-scientist's castle."

Naiki nodded and started walking off in that direction, holding Mara around the waist.

Purely in case the demoness felt weak at anytime.

"My waist is higher than that," Mara said as they came in front of the hospital.

A man, demon, was walking out of the building and blinked as he saw Mara and the green-haired girl coming up the road. An amused expression worked over his face as he moved forward to help Mara forward.

"Mara, you haven't finished paying for your last visit," he said.

"Stuff it Dever," Mara said. "And I need to make a call before you start working."

"Are you expecting anesthesia, Mara," the demon asked. "These flesh wounds aren't going to need that level of healing."

"There's a time issue here," Mara said. "The girl needs to be at Registration as soon as we can get her there."

Dever turned to look at Naiki then as they came into a room and he directed Mara to lay down on a bed.

"Heya," she said hesitantly.

"A demigoddess," the man said, looking over her carefully. "A sea-child I see."

"Umm, I...what?" Naiki asked, looking toward the man. "I'm just a strong human."

"As you say," Dever said with a curious smile.

The demon of plagues had an eye for biology and anatomy, and he knew a half-blooded being when he saw one. Still, if she didn't know, Mara had a good reason to keep that knowledge from her. So it would be best not push the issue.

"Make your call, Mara," the man said, unfolding a panel to reveal a computer monitor. "I'm going to get some assitants in here."

Mara moved toward the panel and started typing at it. Naiki recognized texting when she saw it, even if she herself never got a cell phone to take part. Apparently, the term "call" was meant in a broad sense.

Mara frowned a bit as she turned around and closed the panel, but nodded as if she wasn't too surprised.

"We'll be going to the Network War Center first," Mara said.

"The what?" Naiki asked.

"Hell's code monkeys," Mara said.

Then she quieted as Dever came back in with a young woman that Naiki thought was a demoness at first glance, though the symbols on her head were different and had different colors.

"So, are you going to be casting a healing spell on Mara then?" Naiki asked, paying close attention as they removed Mara's top.

And sighed as it was proved Mara was wearing a bra.

Dever turned toward the glowering demoness and examined her arm, shoulder and side where the bullets had impacted before turning toward a set of tools.

"Unfortunately," Dever said. "Demonic magic is not well known for healing power. The side wound went straight through, fortunately, and missed anything vital. My own magic is about making the body fail rather than keeping it up, I can turn that against a disease...kill it before it kills the patient, but for purely physical wounds like this, the old skills are best. Fortunately I have a innate sense of anatomy as well."

Mara gritted her teeth painfully as the demon turned a sci-fi looking device on her side injury and a beam passed over it leaving a sealed burn behind. As that was done, the young woman moved in to place her hands over the injury and quietly started chanting.

"I thought you said you didn't have healing magic," Naiki said.

"Oh, Althea, introduce yourself please," Dever said as he moved around behind Mara to start probing the shoulder wound.

"Oh, yes," the woman said with a smile. "I'm Althea, Goddess of Medics."

"Wait, shouldn't a goddess stay in Heaven?" Naiki asked.

"Heaven's policies aren't going to stop the evils of any of the worlds," Althea said seriously. "They're too restrictive on each their own actions and too...generous. Besides, Nifelheim has a more desperate need for healers, even minor ones like me."

"So what makes you minor?" Naiki asked.

"I'm the magical equivalent of first aid," Althea said. "I can't instantly heal wounds, but I can stop them from getting worse and make the body heal faster. Any other healing spells is in Yggdrasil's system and I'm barred access now."

"Oh," Naiki said.

"That feels better," Mara said moments before crying out as Dever continued probing her shoulder.

"You're going to need a sling for this," Dever said. "Do you concur?"

"That'll be best," Althea said. "One day, maybe two."

"So I'll be a hundred percent when we go back up to Earth," Mara noted with approval.

It didn't take long to finish up treating the injuries so that Mara and Naiki could continue with their business here.

"Thank you for your business, Mara," Dever said as she left. "Always good to have one of the elite owing you favors."

The word elite was said with more than a trace of sardonic wit.

Walking through the streets, Naiki noticed that some parts of Nifelheim seemed more hellish than others. Though, for the most part, the fires, ash and smoke were still the only thing that matched the stereotypes, and even they seemed less malevolent than she thought.

Just irritating.

"When you become a demon, you'll stop noticing," Mara said. "Earth will seem a bit thin to you though. Except some of the cities, Los Angeles is still pretty smoggy at times I hear."

"Wait, pollution is a demonic plot?" Naiki asked.

"Yes...no...sort of," Mara said gesturing in a bit of confusion. "Someone thought it would make it easier to deal with humans if the environment was more tolerable to us than to the Gods, but the industrial revolution was already going on strong. Couldn't keep it up, anyway."

"Why not?" Naiki asked.

Mara sighed for a moment and concentrated before chanting in a language Naiki did not know. As she did, Mara's features twisted, face becoming more pointed and angular, with large, frilled ears, dark scaled skin, a thin twisting tail and enlongated, taloned arms.

She held that form for perhaps ten seconds before reverting back to her normal face, turning to face Naiki.

"Wh..what was that?" Naiki asked.

"That's a spell to recall our people's original appearance and bodies," Mara said.

"So, that's what I'm becoming?" Naiki asked.

"What, Hell no," Mara said. "Demons haven't naturally looked like that since the first God-Demon war. Thank god, those bodies were the ugliest." She did have vague memories that she didn't always think that way.

"What made the change?" Naiki asked.

"We both started hiding among humans, appealing to them," Mara said. "Rewriting ourselves to resemble them. Reincarnating to live among them and understand them. It became more and more permanent over time."

"So what seperates Gods, Demons and Humans now?" Naiki asked.

"Lots of things," Mara said shrugging. "We only changed the outer appearance, and maybe absorbed some philosophies and culture differences. Though that might be why demons and gods only started interbreeding with humans and each other over the last four or five thousand years."

"And I'm becoming a Demon?" Naiki asked.

"Half-Demon," Mara said. "Can't change Gods into Demons, or vice versa. Can't change the parts of you wired to be a God."

"Why not?" Naiki asked again as they continued walking along.

"They're elements in a network," Mara said. "Even if they leave their network, that sort of wiring protects itself. Althea is part of Nidhog through a conversion hook up. It makes her a less efficient element in the system, but it's the only way to add her and other defectors in."

Mara stopped for a moment and looked around to see if anybody was listening.

"Your friend is the same way," Mara said. "She's an element. That means her species is locked. Human now and forever. If the network succeeds, in a few generations, all humans will have similarly guarded DNA, and evolution will allow less interference."

"So why do I have to become a demon?" Naiki asked suspiciously.

"Because that human network is new, primitive," Mara said. "They don't know how to bring you in or safeguard your souls. And hear we are."

The Network War Center looked something like a massive factory, billowing smoke into the air. Judging by the way Mara waved at the air about her as they entered the building, the atmosphere was thick even for a demon.

Opening the door ahead of them Mara had a surprise and Naiki had a suddenly dry mouth.

Geisthexe-san was blonde.

Kurz Weber was blonde.

Tessa's lavender hair was close to white, making her almost a platinum blonde.

Kaname's friend, Kyoko, the cute girl with the camera, had light brown hair with some traces of blonde.

Someone had once joked that Naiki harbored a secret attraction for her blonde brother Deimosu. A comment that had Naiki unable to enjoy the sight of any cute, handsome or sexy blonde for two weeks afterward.

As she walked in behind Mara, however, Naiki was quite sure that she had found the perfect blonde female.

"Hild-sama," Mara said in surprise. "This is...a surprise."

"Well, I came down to meet our new recruit," Hild said, swaying forward in motion that had Naiki just about mesmerized.

The CEO of Nifelheim stopped in front of the staring girl, looked her over carefully and reached out to close her mouth.

"Umm, sorry," Naiki said. "Are you Geisthexe-san's boss then?"

"I'm every demon's boss," Hild said. "Soon to be yours, what do you say to that?"

"If you want I can give you a sacrifice of virginity right now," the green-haired girl said.

"Passionate...little thing, isn't she?" Hild noted to Mara with a twinkle of amusement.

"I've been learning that," Mara said.

"That won't be necessary," Hild said, looking over Naiki speculatively. "Hmm, already have fangs. You'll make a lovely demon. Maybe in a few years, we'll talk."

"Oh definitely," Naiki said, nodding fervantly.

"Now, as to why you're hear instead of in Registration sitting in the so-called 'Throne of Damnation' getting your marks," Hild said.

"What's the problem?" Mara asked.

"Let's just say that I'm not all that trusting of the coincidences involved here," Hild said.

"Coincidences?" Naiki asked.

"Heaven realized your mother's case involved some of their own ten years ago," Hild said. "And they've been looking for her since then. I find it hard to believe that I can stumble on by accident what the Eyes of Ra have missed for decade."

"Wait, my mother's case?" Naiki asked. "What are you talking about."

"We'll discuss that in a little bit," Hild said. "For now, we have to make sure you're not carrying any surprises that could be detrimental to either you or us."

She gestured and a small group of demons stepped out from a side room and moved forward.

Naiki immediately dropped into a stance at the suspicious approach.

"There going to check you for curses," Mara said simply. "Heaven doesn't use viruses like we do."

"We're talking about rogues here," Hild said. "Rogues don't follow anybody's rules, ours or theirs. Don't worry, child, we're trying to make sure you're not going to be hurt."

Naiki looked to Mara and Hild, she knew she didn't have much of a history with these people, but given the situation with her and Tessa, she didn't have much choice. She wondered if being in another world slowed things down at all.

"Fine," Naiki said, finally. "But the first hint of funny business..."

"And you have my permission to thrash the lot of them silly," Hild said. "Given there's not a combat specialist in the lot, I'm sure you could do it before they got off more than a spell or two. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to borrow your teacher for a bit."

Naiki blinked as perfection turned to walk into another room, curling a finger behind her to indicate for Mara to follow and watched as the other blonde demoness grimaced before stepping into the wake.

"Miss Satomi," one of the demons around her said. "This way and we can get this over with."

Naiki sighed and nodded.

Meanwhile, in the next room, Mara had caught up to Hild.

"Now would you mind telling me why we have a half-initiated demi-goddess being set up to become a demoness?" Hild asked.

"She's assimilating with someone," Mara said. "If we wait too long, there won't be a her to recruit."

"Assimilating?" Hild said in surprise. "Is there some old God or Demon out there that avoided the markings?"

"No, it's a Human element," Mara said.

Hild stopped in her tracks, turned and faced Mara.

"Explain this again," Hild said.

"There's a chi-network," Mara said. "I don't know what they're calling it yet. But it's more than that, they have enhancing arrays."

"A network and enhancing devices," Hild muttered shaking her head. "Well, we've overlooked that fairly blatantly. If Heaven's not in the same position, we'll be the laughing stocks of the dimensional community. Give my a quick summary of the encounter."

"I was doing the standard dark mentor schtick and helping her lead some of Mithril's soldiers to a terrorist den," Mara said. "Turns out the terrorist have their own Juggernaut, newly made, built around chi. It took her, me, Urd, her mother and some human soldiers with an Arms Slave that for all I could tell went past the machines they've been piloting. It might as well have been a Carapace, also built on Chi, to take it down."

"I see," Hild said. "Organize your thoughts, get ready to report them in thirty minutes. I want a full analysis while Miss Satomi is getting her vaccinations before joining our merry band."

****

Deimosu sat at his campfire thinking over what he had to do.

At least he was trying to.

He was also trying not to think about what his sisters and mother must be feeling and thinking right now.

Deimosu was amazed he'd gotten this far without her tracking him down, actually. His mother was a great tracker and it wasn't like there were any more emergencies to keep her nailed down at home or anywhere else.

Then again, she probably hadn't finished hog-tying Naiki into staying put yet.

Naiki wouldn't likely sit still for this sort of thing, and if she read that note, she'd be demanding all sorts of things from their mother.

The blonde young man wondered if, perhaps, Eija at least already suspected something. She had asked once about their father before, though he had to admit to not paying much attention at the time.

The truth of their conception hadn't occured to him and for all he cared at the time, if their father wasn't around their mother, then he was a loser of some kind.

Eija and Naiki were fine on their own.

Eija had her new friends and Naiki had that new teacher.

They both had Okaasan, assuming she wasn't on his trail yet.

"Maybe I should get moving," he muttered.

Then he tossed a rock into the campfire bitterly.

"But where?!" he demanded. "East? What the hell is east? All that's east is the ocean."

Deimosu stood up and looked out in that direction.

"Oceanus," he said. "That's a titan, but what's the shadow of the ocean?"

He paced around his camp fire a bit and thought hard. This was the sort of thing that Eija was good at, researching. And if it had anything to do with going underwater, that was Naiki's playground.

All he could do really was go east and hope something occured to him.

He shook his head moved to put the fires out before heading to sleep.

Deimosu was only just nodding off when the sensation that he was not alone washed overwhelmingly over him.

Sitting bolt upright he found himself facing a woman that resembled something of what Eija could be in a few years. She didn't have their mother's Japanese features and was quite a bit taller, but the resemblance was still uncanny.

"Are you Hecate?" he asked. "Wasn't I supposed to find you in the East in the shadow of the titan?"

"If you hadn't noticed," Hecate said coolly. "The Helios has gone over the horizon and this whole section of the world is in his shadow."

"Wait," Deimosu said. "You're saying that the Furies were just telling me to wait for night?"

This made Deimosu more than a little nervous.

"Convenient placed answers," his mother had said once. "Usually mean there's a leash involved somewhere."

"They have an...obscure way of speaking," Hecate agreed. "But it was necessary to pull you away from your family before Heaven found you."

"Why is that?" Deimosu asked.

"Because Heaven has a file on every mortal, Demon, God and assorted minor players in existence with few exceptions. And you are one of those exceptions. Right now, Heaven cannot track you," Hecate said. "A very important thing considering the goal you and I share, cousin."

"You mean this doublet system," Deimosu said.

"Which keeps us from taking our proper vengeance on those that have wronged us," Hecate agreed.

"What about Hell?" Deimosu asked. "Am I hidden from them as well?"

"Somehow," Hecate said, with a sigh. "The powers of Nifelheim know about you, but that won't be a problem."

"Oh?" Deimosu asked.

"By the truce," Hecate said. "Asgard supplies the sentinels and Nifelheim supplies the guards. And unless Nifelheim breaks from age old habits, they're not likely to share their files on you with Asgard."

"So, since Heaven can't track me," Deimosu noted. "I'm under the radar?"

"Exactly," Hecate said, nodding. "You can approach the place the truce is kept and no one will notice unless they actually see or hear you."

"I guess you'll tell me how to find it then?" Deimosu said.

"Something like this isn't kept in a place you can be told how to find," Hecate said. "It isn't kept in a place that's on a map of any of the three worlds. It's kept between the worlds and between the seasons."

"And that's another riddle," Deimosu said irritably.

"No, it's a passkey and time-lock," Hecate corrected. "One part of it is an easy answer. There are many cultures that have days that are considered outside the roll of the years. The easiest such time to mark in this day and age is the Celtic Samhain. A leap day would work too, but that would be cutting things awfully short."

"Okay, that helps with between times, what about between worlds?" Deimosu asked.

"I've thought of several possibilities and I'll supply the list," Hecate noted. "I haven't been able to test them because I've been part of the network, so I can't sneak in."

"Why not just pull yourself out of the network and sneak in yourself?" the Satomi asked.

"Clever one, aren't you?" Hecate asked. "Because in addition to being hard to find, it's also difficult to damage the thing. Dropping out of the system might let one of us creep in, but that means sacrificing the bulk of our power. Even with a minor arsenal of blessed or cursed weapons, a rogue Demon or God won't be able to break through the spells surrounding the system before the guardian demons descend on them."

"How does that make me a better choice for this?" Deimosu asked.

"Because, in a manner characteristic of superior beings," Hecate said, unaware of the irony of the statement she was making. "Their defensive measures deal with pishogue and mana."

Deimosu looked at her somewhat blankly.

"Demonic and divine spiritual energies," Hecate said dryly. "They've basically neglected chi as a threat."

Granted, at the time, no one knew how to use chi, but it wasn't necessary to mention it.

"So, you've got a list of possible places where I can find a way in and I have a three-day time period in which to test them," Deimosu noted. "Assuming Hel doesn't tell on me. At which point I can get in and destroy this thing quicker than most Demons or Gods because I happen to be half-human and able to use chi."

"Quite," Hecate said.

"Do I get any relics to help with this?" he asked.

"Are you joking," Hecate asked with a laugh. "Nothing like that exists for chi-users. Nothing significant."

Deimosu thought back to his experience in Korea and the brief appearance of that AS piloted by that psychopath. Perhaps Hecate wasn't as up to date as she thought.

"My suggestion," Hecate said. "Do some travelling and training. You're going to need to be a lot more powerful to even think about taking your father. And you'll want to be stronger before you attack the doublet system as well. You have some months, get started."

And with that, Hecate stood up and walked away from Deimosu, vanishing into the night.

****

"You! You sent that fax!?" Kaname shouted as she pointed her infamous harisen at an unusual target.

One Mia Shoji was backed against a wall with the blue-haired fury between her and the roof-top door she had been intending on reaching.

"You're vice president of the athletics club, what reason could you have to want to cancel the basketball tournament!?" Kaname demanded.

"Because you're better than me?" the girl said weakly.

It was an admission that sounded much weaker without the immediate threat of suicide to back it up.

"So what?!" Kaname snapped angrily. "It's high school basketball not life or death! You're better than almost everybody here, I don't see any of them threatening to kill themselves. But you have to end it all because one person is better than you? Do you know how selfish that sounds!"

Mia started to shift cautiously along the wall, eyeing an exit and wondering if she could make it before Kaname cut her off. Really, the girl's anger had her more than a little mystified. Was she that serious about the tournament?

No, she'd already dismissed that as less than important.

So what was her problem then?

"It's all your fault," Kaname said slowly and harshly.

"Miss Chidori," Sousuke's voice said as he came up behind Kaname. "If I may, I will escort the prisoner to discuss the matter with his excellency."

Kaname straightened her back and stepped away from Mia, much to the other girl's relief.

"Do it," Kaname said, catching her breath before walking away down the hall.

That left Shoji in the hands of Sousuke Sagara, and though he didn't get as vocal as Chidori did, the high school girl was fairly certain that he disapproved of her little attempt to shut down the basketball tournament just as much.

She certainly did feel like a prisoner as she was escorted to Hayashimizu's office. Sousuke Sagara walking behind her like a silent, grim executioner. Finally, they were in the class president's office, one window boarded up until new glass could be brought in to replace it later.

"Ahh, good," the white-haired class president said. "Sagara if you would please return to class we will handle this issue."

"As you wish sir," Sousuke said with a salute before leaving.

Left with more sane people, Shoji let the bulk of terror she'd been feeling to this point flow out in a torrent.

"What the hell are setting those rabid dogs on me for!?" she demanded.

"Ah, yes," Hayashimizu said. "I'm afraid their attitude was a matter of unfortunate timing. You see, I came to them about your letter while they were looking for a friend of theirs. As such they were not immediately on hand for said friend being snatched by an individual of questionable morals."

Mia winced.

"Now, I do believe that they were able to rescue her," the school president said. "But I'm guessing that something has happened since the friend in question is apparently not going to be in school for the next few days."

"I think you can see why they might be a little upset," Ren Mikihara noted quietly.

"Now, let us discuss the basketball tournament," the class president said.

Mia nodded and sat down, getting a little tired of the emotional upheavals for the day.

****

Kaname sat down in her desk and let out a long sigh of frustration.

She could still feel Eija's thoughts in the back of her head, though they were muted down just to emotions for the moment.

The most distinctly aggravating thing at the moment was that she couldn't figure out where Eija was at the moment. It was confusing, because she certainly did know where Eija was: Heaven or Asgard, or whatever it was called. Not only that, but there was no reason for her to just KNOW where Eija was at any given time.

Unless this link they had could do that.

She hoped that didn't mean anything bad.

What Kaname'd been able to sense from the other girl after she'd left was a roller-coaster of emotions ranging from awe to anger to determination. Since then everything was a bit more normal, aside for some worry directed toward her.

"Are you feeling okay, Kaname?" Kyoko asked, more than a trace of worry in her voice. "You really blew up at Shoji last period."

"Miss Chidori merely expressed her opinion for Miss Shoji's selfish actions," Sousuke said from his seat.

"Well, I know she was being self-centered," Kyoko said. "But that hardly warrants Hurricane Kaname followed by a firing squad."

Sousuke and Kaname exchanged a look.

"We may have been a bit overzealous," Sousuke admitted.

"I wonder if this is what it's like to be you all the time," Kaname asked, pointing at Sousuke who responded with something of a sigh. "We'll apologize later."

"That's good," Kyoko said. "It's not like anybody's life was at stake or anything."

"Hey, did you guys hear?" Shinji asked as he entered the room.

"What now?" Kaname asked.

"All three of the Satomis are going to be out of school for at least a couple of days," the kid said.

"All three?" Kaname said in surprise.

Sousuke sat up as well, frowning.

"Wow, no wonder Naiki hasn't been in any of my pictures today," Kyoko said. "I wonder what happened. Kaname do you know anything?"

"Eija had to go somewhere for a...medical thing," Kaname said. "I don't know about the others, did you hear anything, Sousuke?"

"Negative," he said. "We'll have to ask about it later."

Kaname nodded, grimacing.

****

Tessa walked up the path to the door leading to Ranma Satomi's warehouse home and facility. She'd been here the first time last night and she didn't quite relish what she was here for now.

Behind her, Mardukas was standing at the gate, looking on the place somewhat critically, especially the pile of debris that was sitting aside of the gate.

The Mithril captain had the expectation that she would have to knock on the door, so she was surprised when the red-headed martial artist came out of the warehouse easily hauling the fragmented remains of a sofa and carrying it towards the front.

"Hmm, Captain," Ranma said as she passed and moved up to drop the broken piece of furniture on the pile. "Commander. What are you here for?"

Behind her, Tessa had turned back around to follow the older woman.

"We heard you accepted the job with Psyche Division," Mardukas said as the woman turned to face him.

"I did," she responded evenly. "Are you here to discuss operations or something?"

"No," Tessa said, stepping forward. "I came to apologize."

"Apologize for what?" Ranma asked.

"I'm the reason your daughter chose to go to...that place," Tessa said.

"Let's talk inside," Ranma said sharply, jabbing a hand that direction.

There weren't many places to sit down once they'd gotten inside. The homely if spartan decor of the building was decimated.

Tessa was shocked, apparently A-21's terrorists had done a thorough job of going through the place. Though that made little sense, they apparently hadn't bothered doing much damage to Sousuke's place.

"Naiki somehow...resonated with me," Tessa explained, glancing back toward Mardukas standing guard at the door. "And we resonated too deeply. That...woman that was with Naiki told her that they could stop it if she were to become a demon. I tried to talk her out of it, but she cut me out of communication."

The martial artist stayed silent for several seconds as she took this in.

"So that's why," Ranma said, shaking her head. "It's not your fault."

"But if I had been more careful," Tessa protested.

"No, there was another option in the area," Ranma said. "Something similar happened with Eija. She's with a Goddess right now getting the same problem fixed. This...Mara, however, did everything she could to keep Naiki from knowing there was another choice."

"I see," Tessa said. "I didn't know. How is your son doing with this problem?"

Ranma's posture straightened as her face turned grim.

"He doesn't know," she said grimly. "He left last night while we were fighting that thing."

"Why would he do that?" Tessa asked.

"He's on a...personal errand," Ranma said. "Well-meaning but reckless."

"So...all three of your children left home last night?" Tessa asked, glancing around again at the damage with a new perspective. "I'm sorry."

"I had a feeling something was wrong," Ranma said. "But I ignored it, decided not to pressure my kids with paranoia and went to check something personal. So it's more my fault than yours."

"I do hope you'll see your children soon," Tessa said.

Ranma nodded.

"You're listening in on Naiki's thoughts then?" Ranma asked.

"Well, it's been down to emotions since she blocked me and then left," Tessa said. "But, yes..."

"How's she doing then?" Ranma asked.

"Well, she's bored," Tessa said. "And...errr..."

The demure sub Captain blushed heavily as Ranma watched and the chi master's eyebrow twitched.

"Is she getting anything done about the 'errr'?" Ranma asked.

"I'm...uh...thinking she's feeling very frustrated," Tessa said.

"That better be all she gets," Ranma muttered firmly.

From his position, Mardukas nodded sagely in agreement with the mother's attitude about her child.


	13. Searching and Conflict

"So what's the prognosis?" Frigga asked as Belldandy came in to the office.

"There was a virus there," Belldandy said. "Or parts of one at least."

****

"Is there any hint of what she was trying to do?" Hild asked.

"No," the demon virus-hunter said. "We ran it through an isolated simulation and only came up with a message."

****

"'Did you really think it would be so obvious?'" Belldandy said with more than a hint of sadness and distaste for the actions of a fellow goddess. "The virus would have worked itself out immediately afterward."

"She's outright telling us there's a deeper goal involved here," Kali said, frowning.

****

"I don't like this at all," Hild said, frowning. "This doesn't play to the portfolios of any of the three Gods we think to be involved in this."

"It matches Zeus's arrogance," one of the demons in front of her said.

"If it were Zeus's plot, it would not involve the other two," Hild noted. "He doesn't like to share women."

"One of the others..." the demon suggested.

"Poseiden isn't nearly subtle enough," Hild said. "Hades could do it, but he's practically retired. The only of the three Greek brothers that stepped down to let his wife take over."

****

"A lot of this is a matter for the Eyes of Ra and the Einherjar," Frigga said. "Though it is coincidental that it's happening just when we're getting word about this new network."

Kali nodded.

"I did some research," the destroyer said. "This Kaname Chidori that our new recruit is linked with is listed as a Human psionic. One of the ones that call themselves 'Whispered'."

"I vaguely remember something about that," Frigga said. "I thought they were just a variation of telepathy."

"Well, so was the Yggdrassil network, originally," Belldandy reminded her. "However, Eija is safe to ascend and I would suggest to do so soon. Miss Chidori's thoughts almost reached through the world barriers a few minutes ago. It may have just been an emotion spike, but better safe than sorry."

****

Naiki looked at the "Throne of Damnation" with a bit of trepedition.

It was a tall looking chair made of some sort of coppery metal inlaid with a large number of gemstones and crystals that she'd never seen before. There were decorative spikes and curling, bone like additions.

It carried with it an impression of dark power to be had just for the asking.

"Do you have to call it the 'Throne of Damnation'?" she asked.

"Not really, no," Mara said. "Go ahead and sit down."

"Just curious," Naiki said. "Is this going to hurt at all?"

Mara looked toward the techs involved.

"That depends on how much you," he said. "Some people get antsy and resist once the process starts."

"It's a relic," Mara said grimmly but honestly. "Built during wartime. I've heard it isn't nice even after some of the nastier bits have been disabled."

"Nasty bits?" Naiki asked.

"We did used to 'draft' people," one of the tech-demons said. "And it would be necessary to insure loyalty..."

"It's going to brainwash me?" Naiki said in surprise.

"Like I said, all the nastier bits are disabled," Mara said. "It's not fun, but it's not mind-altering anymore. Heck, once we had some gods and goddesses defect, they helped improve the safeguards on mind and soul to make it even harder to do mind warping crap on us."

"So, you've sat in this thing?" Naiki asked.

"Once," Mara said. "Needed to fix some damage."

Naiki thought about it for a moment, biting her lip.

"Here's the important question," Mara asked. "Do you want to stay you and have your friend stay her?"

The green-haired girl sighed, taking a deep breath and stepped forward to sit down in the throne.

"So, how does this go?" she asked.

At that, the throne lit up around her in a shifting red light.

****

Eija's eyes widened as she kneeled on the bench in front of what she'd been told was the Altar of Ascendance and the golden light washed over her.

It was the most unusual feeling, almost like she imagined that Neo character must have felt when he woke up with cables in his back. Only in this case, the cables were connecting to her rather than pulling away.

She tried to keep herself calm at the intrusion, but it was hard at first.

Slowly, she was finding it easier to remain calm and even comfortable with the connections. It wasn't a change in her, but as she was connected, her mind wandered out and she found the beauty that was Yggdrasil. A mental neighborhood with a host of new neighbors, the majority of which she felt were eager to welcome a new member.

****

Naiki's hands clenched at the feelings waving through her. Suspicion and anger were prevalent throughout a lot of the network she was being connected to.

Lots of loss, lots of pain.

Lots of people that had seen many things taken from them and were eager to never feel such again.

Eager to make people pay for causing such pain and loss.

Slow to trust.

Quick to anger.

Fierce in loyalty

Passionate in joy.

Proud of family.

As promised, it wasn't fun.

But it also wasn't trying to work into her mind from what she could tell.

And it was clear, from the glimpses she was getting, that these weren't the evil, plotting, scheming monstrosities her white-magic teachings had said they were.

The last thing she felt, as all the connections were made, was the wall rising into position between her mind and soul and the rest of Nidhog.

Panting and sweating she stumbled up out of the throne and almost toppled, falling into Mara's arms.

"We really need a new machine for this," Mara muttered. "Doing okay kid?"

"Not fun!?" Naiki gasped. "That thing is torture! What the hell was that?"

"A peek at the neighborhood," Mara said. "Welcome to Nifelheim, Naiki."

As she said that, she moved Naiki toward a mirror and let the girl take in the red marks on her face.

****

Eija opened her eyes slowly as the process ended and the light faded. Taking a deep breath she started to stand.

Urd was at her side and holding her hand as she unsteadily took her feet.

"There was so much," Eija whispered. "So much..."

"Yeah," Urd said. "It was like that when I chose too."

"You briefly have direct access to feel the emotions of everyone in Yggdrasil when the link is made," Belldandy said. "That much exposure to other minds can be tiring."

"You were born mortal?" Eija asked.

"No, but I'm half-demon," Urd said. "I had to choose which network to be part of."

"Did it work then?" Eija asked.

"See for yourself," Kali said, gesturing to a mirror.

Eija looked to see the blue marks on her face.

"Welcome, Eija, Goddess," Belldandy said with a smile.

****

On Earth, Kaname stared at the scrawled notes she'd taken in a hurry over the last thirty minutes. She understood everything she was looking at, though she still had only a hint of just why she understood such things like this.

What she was looking at was some sort of device built to look like an altar, complete with a low bench to kneel on.

There were other notes.

Chromosomal overcoding to allow for greater amounts of information into the genetic structure.

Specific DNA codes, which Kaname some how knew were unusuable for her but might possibly make good models.

Brain wave frequencies and activity data.

All sorts of things that would be useful for one particular task, if she wanted to duplicate a way to join Heaven that is, and maybe as the basis for other tasks that Kaname had a vague impression of, but nothing specific.

"You know this whispered thing gets pretty annoying," she noted idly.

Still, at least she'd managed to get most of the information she wanted before the flow had stopped rushing down to her out of Eija's side of their link.

Now, she was still feeling Eija on the other end, but she was completely certain that there'd be no threat of them permanently merging into one soul any longer.

On the other hand, they were still permanently connected.

She was pondering that when her phone rang.

Confused, she moved over to the cell and picked it up.

"Hello?" she said.

"Miss Chidori?" the voice on the other end said.

"You're Captain Testarossa," Kaname said. "I recognize your voice from last night."

"Yes," Tessa said on the other end. "Do you think you and Sergeant Sagara can come to Miss Satomi's place?"

"We were already planning on it," Kaname said. "We heard some...news today. Why?"

"Umm, over the phone I'm a bit limited, but I understand that Eija has gone to...a certain place for a procedure," Tessa said. "And I'm...thinking, you might feel...or learn...some..."

"I've got notes," Kaname said. "But I don't think it'll be enough by itse...How do you know about this?"

"Because I've got something similar with Miss Satomi's other daughter," Tessa said. "So...I might have...a second view on the issue."

"Naiki went to...that place too?" Kaname asked.

"Not quite," Tessa said.

****

"Geisthexe-san," Naiki said dangerously as she stopped in the middle of her kata. "Why can't I feel any chi?"

"Because you have none," Mara said. "You're not human anymore."

"You never mentioned that!" Naiki said.

"I was trying to minimize distractions," Mara said. "You didn't need any more reason to dawdle than you already had."

"So what am I going to do if I don't have chi to fight with," the new demoness asked.

"You'll use pishogue," Mara said. "And that's what the rest of our time here will be for. You also still have some natural mana, so we might get some of our resident Gods to help you out with that."

****

"Umm, one day to learn all the basics to a new form of energy manipulation?" Eija asked.

"Tell me," Kali asked. "How do you perceive time?"

"You count minutes...seconds," Eija said. "The same way you perceive space. Chunks."

"How long does it take you to have a thought?" Kali asked.

Eija thought about that for a moment and it proved hard to narrow down a timeframe. Thoughts seemed to have no real speed. Most of the time they flowed along like speech, but in a fight they seemed to come a rush. When she used the amaguriken, it was like she had a thought over each fraction of a second as analyzed and adjusted her aim.

"The answer is," Kali said before the new goddess could answer. "Your thoughts come at about the same rate your mind is perceiving time at the moment. So we're going to use a spell to speed up your mind and you already have experience with white magic."

"But that won't help me with channelling it through my body," Eija noted.

****

"Start with up here, kid," Mara said. "And the rest will come naturally."

"Okay," Naiki said then paused. "I wonder if I can refigure the amaguriken for this."

"Amaguriken?" Mara asked. "Chestnut fist?"

"Yeah, I'd show you if I had chi," Naiki said. "It makes you punch superfast."

"How fast?" Mara asked.

"I could hit something like a thousand punches a second," Naiki said. "And sometimes, I can get as accurate as 'Kaasan and make it all look like one punch. Though 'Kaasan is a lot faster, more controlled and can do it with her whole body."

Mara stared at Naiki for a few seconds, processed that information and the battle with Behemoth the night before.

"Naiki...hypothetically," she said. "If your mother were mad at someone and they tried to hide from her...what would she do?"

Naiki laughed.

"That can be fun to watch," she said.

"Oh...joy," Mara said.

****

Meanwhile, Nidhog and Yggdrasil respectively recorded Naiki and Eija's genetic and spiritual coding both before and after the process and moved it to be stored in their memories.

As the information entered the system, a small bit of extra programming in each of the storage systems registered and scanned the information against its own records. Recognizing the Satomi coding, it duplicated a copy of the information to absorb into its own.

The previously identical programs shifted form and moved quietly from the archives into the communication hubs and sat and waited.

****

Eija looked at herself in the mirror as Kali typed at a keyboard over to the side and Urd sat to the side reading what appeared to be a manga.

The marks on her faced were shaped like blue drops of liquid sliding down from the corners of her eyes and her forehead. That blue coloring might have made most people that looked at the drops think they were supposed to be water, but Eija knew better.

She was always marked by blood.

Even before the first time she killed someone, a knife wielding maniac in a cult's den, she'd still been marked by the blood in her eyes.

Curiously, she opened her mouth.

Still no fangs.

"You'd only have fangs if you started with them," Kali noted.

"How did you know I was thinking that?" Eija asked.

"Because," Kali said. "My recent childhood started a little less than forty years ago. I also got the Dracula comments."

The dark skinned woman smiled at the pale new goddess as she said that. The irony of someone with her coloration getting accused of being a vampire not lost on Eija.

"Shouldn't I be practicing now?" Eija asked.

"In a moment," Urd said. "Kali's getting us some training space. and facilities."

"And I should be just about...done," she said. "You have a meditation room, start with the Searching."

"Searching?" Eija asked.

"Of course," Urd said, as if she were affronted by the idea that she would forget something so basic.

****

Naiki blinked at the paired, sickle shaped marks on her forehead and the shark-tooth shapes, split down the middle by a line of unmarked skin, at the corner of each eye, pointing outward.

Her sharp teeth were the same as always, save the outer four canines seemed more prominent somehow. She tried one of her "cute, fangy smiles" and it still seemed to carry off the same sort of effect.

The only real change she noted as that, indeed, the smoky air was a lot more pleasant than it had been. Though in this place it was still a bit thick, like too many perfumes in one room.

The best part was that the smoke didn't interfere with her sense of smell at all anymore. Her other senses seemed a bit more enhanced as well.

The green-haired demoness could actually feel Mara's pacing through the floor, and, if the other demoness got within a meter or so, she could feel the woman through the change in the air.

She could even feel the tingle of electricity working through Mara's body.

These were things she used to have to be in the water to feel. She didn't have near the sensitivity she was used to in water, but it did make her wonder what her new sensitivity under the waves would be like.

Suddenly, Mara stopped and looked toward the desk where one of the demons was working.

"Are you finished then?" Mara asked.

"You're set," the demon said.

"Okay then, kid," Mara said. "Practice is getting started soon. Starting with Conflict."

"Conflict?" Naiki asked. "Do you mean sparring?"

"Not really," Mara said with a smile.

****

Eija looked uncertainly at the potion in front of her.

"We've been using this this recipe for centuries to help us explore ourselves," Urd said. "It will take you into your own soul, for want of a better description. It will help you search for your truest nature...we call it your Domain."

"So when I drink this, I will see something?" Eija asked. "What did you see?"

Urd looked thoughtful for a moment.

"The Searching is very personal," Urd said quietly. "And not something easily...recalled. It sort of becomes a vague dream over time. It's clearer to some than to others, but...."

"I think I understand," Eija said, reaching down to take the drink.

****

"The smoke out there is thick with certain minerals," Mara said. "Sit out there and it will help you enter the Conflict."

"So I'm going to fight something in the smoke. It that the conflict?" Naiki asked. "You haven't explained that."

"It's what it sounds like," Mara said. "A battle."

"So what am I fighting?" Naiki asked.

"That's something different for each demon," Mara said. "But out of that fight will come your Realm."

"So I get my own land or something?" Naiki asked.

"The type of power that you are most suited to," Mara explained. "Do you understand?"

"I go out there, get high and have a hallucination?" Naiki asked.

"Sort of," Mara said with a twitch.

****

A moment ago, Eija had been sitting and meditating in the training ground Kali had arranged for them, but now suddenly, she was sitting on the rocks over Athens.

Looking about, the sky was white and the sea was red.

As she herself stood up, her skin was as black as her hair, an image she found familiar from her encounters in Kaname's Whispered mindscape.

"What should we do?" a voice asked.

Eija turned around to find another girl standing in front of her, one that looked a lot like the way she looked in the real world.

"Excuse me?" Eija asked curiously.

"What should we do?" the girl asked pointing downward.

Eija looked down and saw the red sea splashing on the beach below and receding. Then it came in again struck higher on the rocks. Each incoming wave came higher and higher.

"The tide's coming in," Eija said. "That's all."

As she said that, a heavy wave, more than a simple tsunami, crashed down on the rocky Grecian beach and receded only slightly before another hit and washed further up, carrying away bathers with it.

"What should we do?"

Eija didn't bother to answer as she leaped down toward the beach and moved to rescue the people carried off, but as the non-descript people touched the flow of the red waves, they dissolved and melted into the flow of red liquid.

Flinching away, Eija danced back and grabbed a person before they could touch the red waves. The other her copied her actions, saving other men and women. Several others, however, were caught and dissolved into the rising current.

Grabbing as many people as she could, Eija continued to deposit the faceless masses that she rescued higher up the cliffs. Only to see that the cliffs themselves were being dissolved by the torrent.

"What should we do?" the other her asked.

"Why do you ask me?" Eija asked. "You can do as much as I can."

"Okaasan is not here," the other her said.

Eija flinched away.

"Deimosu and Naiki are not here," the other said.

She looked down helplessly at the scarlet waves eating their way toward the phantom Athens.

"Sousuke is not here," she said. "Kaname is not here."

And then the natural-seeming Eija looked toward Eija's black-skinned, red-eyed true spirit.

"You are the only one I can ask," she said. "What should we do?"

"Do...do you always ask others what to do first?" Eija asked.

The other her nodded.

"Do I always ask what to do?" Eija wondered.

As she thought the tide kept rising below.

"How do I stop an ocean of..."

Eija stopped mid sentence, head dipping downward and biting her lip as her eyes stared forward hollowly.

She leaped down again toward the advancing sea, stopping just before it.

As it crashed in toward, her, she tensed nervously, but held her ground as the wave came in and stopped just short of her.

The waves started to move around and past her on both sides and experimentally she raised one hand to her side. On that side of her, the red wave washed straight upward as if it had struck a wall. Seeing that, she raised her other hand upward and the sea on that side slammed into its own invisible force.

Taking in a breath, Eija calmly and coolly stepped forward, bringing her hands forward and pushing back the waves as she did so.

From that clapping motion she moved into the beginnings of a routine, noticing that with each step forward, the torrent shifted back. She spun calmly and then thrust forward with a slight hop and the tide retreated further back.

There was less fear and desperation with each step she took, and less and less hostility as well.

"Blood," she said quietly. "It's always blood with me."

As she walked forward now, she seemed almost unaware of the blood as it she pushed it forward.

Protecting the blood of her family and friends.

Shedding her own blood to help others.

Spilling the blood of enemies when she was forced to.

There were other ways to look at things, but Eija had to admit that for her, everything came down to blood.

And right now, the world was drowning in it.

So, right now, someone was needed to send the tide back.

"I have to make decisions and act," she whispered.

****

Naiki stared around, wondering just where she was. A moment ago, she'd been sitting in the middle of a lot of smoke, but now...she was standing on the edge of an island air base?

The ground around her was shades of blue with a sky of lavender and purple clouds. She herself was all in shades of green with bright blue eyes. It was like she was in that weird place where she'd started merging with Tessa.

"Heads up!" a voice shouted.

Naiki looked toward the sound in time to leap over the small helicopter hurled in her direction.

In leaping over it, watching it pass below her, she almost failed to see another figure leaping upward to join her in mid flight. By the time she did see the figure, it was too late to do more than block and roll with axe kick delivered at the end of a forward flip.

She didn't just idly block of course, but latched onto to her opponent's foot, launching the other in a graceless tumble even as Naiki herself hit the ground and rolled into a standing position.

Instantly her eyes locked sight of the figure rising out of the tumble.

Shaking it's head clear and staring at the wreckage of the helicopter.

Smirking at the easy victory, Naiki let fly with a pair of Kijin Raishu Dan vacuum blades. They rushed across the sceen with a ripping sound, twisting at times to cut deep grooves in the ground.

Finally, as they came upon their target, they crossed together and Naiki's attacker flipped up over the attacks with a snickering flourish before landing and bouncing again over Naiki's head.

Naiki started to follow the figure's movement, when she heard a shriek behind her.

Twisting about, Naiki was just in time to see her vacuum blades slash through her sister, leaving little more than a bloody pile of pieces behind.

"Damn you!" her opponent shouted bitterly, drawing Naiki's ire as it seemed her enemy was angered by the death of HER sister.

"Come on then!" Naiki roared out, turning to face the enemy and leaping forward, sharp teeth grinding against each other.

The vague figure of the opponent leapt to meet her again, but this time the growling figure got a face full of Naiki's knee. This time, Naiki was the one who was grabbed in the last moment, and the two were sent scattering across the jagged terrain at the edge of the base.

Getting to her feet, Naiki found herself facing the oppoenent as she came in with a flurry of attacks stolen straight from Naiki's yamasenken. Blocking and dodging furiously, Naiki felt her rage boiling as she finally side stepped, letting the enemy pass right by her as she kneeled to the ground and let her anger pass through her left hand into rock under her feet.

The ground shook violently all around as Naiki turned slowly to watch her enemy's disintegrating stance as the ground shook itself apart underneath.

Blue eyes raging with anger, Naiki ripped her right hand backwards, bringing a torrent of water flying from below to envelope her enemy and drag them down into the deep, her playground.

Naiki was about to follow when she noticed something left in the wake of the wave. A body crushed and battered by stone and wave, but still recognizeable as her brother.

Seething with rage, her hesitation gone, she leaped out into the ocean and slammed down into it, letting her senses spill outward. The senseation of a living nervous system and the vibration of a swift, natural swimmer were easy to track down as she propelled herself forward.

Her enemy, as natural a swimmer as herself it seemed, turned about and came to meet Naiki, flashing past in a strike that spilled blood into the water. Naiki started to follow, but changed her mind briefly as she felt the rushing current of the water about her shift dangerously.

Dashing away from the forming whirlpool, Naiki swam around the edges of it, seeking her enemy even as she noted debris funneling down the whirlpool to the seabed.

The remains of a boat and her mother's surprised and drowned body.

Naiki was screaming as she pushed herself along, finding the enemy, staring into the whirlpool probably to gloat. The young demoness slammed into her enemy, putting all the strength of the water behind her in a huge wave that thrust both her and her enemy up onto the island again.

Immediately, Naiki was up and recovering herself rolling to a standing position next a small helicopter as she immediately noted her opponent standing further out, glancing around in confusion.

Grabbing the helicopter, Naiki lifted it up and, glaring at her opponent, shifted to hurl it.

"Heads up!" she shouted angrily.

Her enemy turned about just in time to see the huge projectile and leap over it, watching as the thing flew past, and giving Naiki an almost perfect opening.

Leaping forward, she waited until she was near the enemy before throwing herself forward into a flip that ended with a downward axe kick that her opponent barely had time to block and roll, adding a suicide grab and twist at the last moment.

Losing control of her own momentum, the demoness came down hard to the ground before rolling to a standing position.

There, before her, crushed under the weight of the helicopter she'd thrown, was Tessa Testarossa.

Her stare was frozen on that body when she heard the characteristic ripping sound of Kijin Raishu Dan vacuum blades growing closer.

Her immediate idea was to leap over the incoming projectiles, but she paused, glancing behind her to see Eija incongruously running to her aide.

"Kijin Raishu Dan!" she growled hurling her own blades forward into the two coming her way.

Charging forward, her enemy slipped backwards, away from her.

"I hate being toyed with!" Naiki shouted angrily as she caught up with her enemy and lashed out with an array of Yamasenken strikes.

When her opponent tried to side-step, she didn't stumble forward but stayed her ground and swiveled smoothly to place herself between the enemy and the ocean.

She was tempted to make another full scale earthquake again, but she didn't know where enemys or friends lay. Instead she channelled her anger into a much more specific target as she thrust her foot downward in a stomp that cracked the earth outward to her enemy.

The localized crack sealed tight once the opponent's foot slipped inside, crushing the limp and trapping it.

Naiki grimaced bitterly as she looked about her to see Deimosu landing at the top of the cliff and her mother beaching a boat further down. Elsewhere, Eija was helping Tessa walk away from the wrecked helicopter.

That satisfying her fears, Naiki turned to face her enemy. The one that made her rage less of a weapon and more of a disaster.

Laughing up at her, was her own face as it appeared in life.

Stepping forward, Naiki didn't hesitate to slash a dark Kijin Raishu Dan through the neck of her double, watching her head hop off and roll to a stop against a shed, shocked expression on her face.

"I can't be acting without thinking about anymore," she said, breathing heavily.

****

Eija snapped awake, much of the memory of her vision already fading back away from her.

A small flood of relief came through the link she had with Kaname, making her come to a guess that, for however long that vision lasted, the Whispered had been blocked from her at least temporarily.

"Well," Urd asked.

"Blood," Eija said. "My Domain is Blood."

****

Naiki thought about the pace of the fading vision and some few images.

"I'm the Demon of Torrent, I think," Naiki said, ignoring the annoyed worry coming out of Tessa's end of the link.

****

"Okay, this is your thing," Kaname said. "So here's the stuff I wrote down during whatever."

"Thank you, Miss Chidori," Kaname said. "But I'm going to need to confer with you. You're not used to this but you'll still have some perspective I might end up needing."

"You don't expect to get anything put together here, in Satomi-san's house," Kaname said, looking around. "What's left of it."

"No. We'll need to do a firm DNA study of Whispered coding versus these base codes," Tessa said. "And some studies of energy frequencies. Which is all stuff we'll need to run in a good research lab."

"So what are we doing here?" Kaname asked.

"Hammering out the basics," Tessa said as she spread out hers and Kaname's notes.

"So why is Sousuke here?" Kaname asked.

Tessa looked up towards where the mentioned boy was standing at attention with the older Satomi and Commander Mardukas.

"Briefing for a new assignment," Tessa said. "Don't worry, it's nothing that'll take him away from you."

****

"Sergeant Sagara," Mardukas said. "You are currently our only pilot capable of using a lambda driver. As you are aware there are some, issues with this new technology."

"Yes, sir," Sousuke said sharply.

"Miss Satomi has offered to give you some extra training in order to smooth over some of the rough spots," Mardukas said. "So I expect you to make use of this training."

"Sir, yes, sir!" Sousuke responded.

"Miss Satomi," Mardukas said. "I leave this soldier with you, and I hope you know what you're letting yourself in for."

"I have a few things in mind," Ranma said firmly, under normal circumstances there would be an accompanying smirk. "Now, first things first. I need to see what shape your in and how you manage yourself currently."

"I understand," Sousuke said, waiting for what exercise she gave him to accomplish this.

"So..." the martial artist said.

Ranma looked around at what was still a disaster area from her anger and rage yesterday. As she did, Sousuke, a veteran of much base duty, knew what was coming.

"I need to see this place spotless in an hour," she said firmly. "Get to work."

"Yes, Ma'am," Sousuke said saluting as he turned to room at large.

"I somehow expected you to spar with him for a few minutes," Mardukas said, pleasantly surprised.

"First rule of being a sensei," Ranma said. "Find reasons to make your daily chores training."

Like everything else, the statement was less smirking than normal, but given the circumstances, Mardukas perfectly understood the woman's cooler than normal behavior.

****

For most people, getting out of a sea-locked country without appearing on the grid was difficult. But then, most weren't reasonably confident they could swim across the Sea of Japan.

The Furies obscure information had drawn her to the wrong side of the country though.

The start of the trail Deimosu wanted to follow was back in Korea and he was on the Japanese eastern coast. That meant at the least, the first day or two of travel would be by foot and then it was time to head over water.

He was worried about just how Hecate could find him so easily if supposedly Heaven couldn't track him. He wanted Zeus dead, and the implication was that she wanted her father dead for the same reason he did.

The fact that he was just what her plan needed was one of those "coincidences" that Deimosu's mother rarely if ever trusted. As far as Ranma Satomi was concerned, "destiny", "prophecy" and "coincidence" all belonged in the category of "excuses for manipulating things."

He was considering this as he walked through the trees in front of him and found something strange.

A house in a small valley, ten kilometers from any of the towns he knew to be in the area. It lay south of him and behind in his path. He'd just about walked right past the area without even noticing it.

He was still trying to come to a conclusion about this when he felt the approach of...someone. In moments, he was up in a tree, keeping as secret as possible and wishing that he'd mastered the umisenken as thoroughly as Eija had. All he had were the basic manuvers, he hadn't worked out the invisibility trick quite yet.

He heard a gasp and looked up to see a small, black-haired girl of about eight years old dressed in a drab blouse and pants, the number 89-5 emblazoned dully on the chest. She was staring down at him nervously. Quietly, he raised a finger to his move and shhed just as two figures came into view below.

Two women, very similar in appearance, walked in underneath, short swords carried at their back as they moved cautiously through, obviously looking for someone. On their heads were a radio and monocle set that looked like they belonged in a science-fiction movie.

"I thought sure there was someone up here," one them said.

"The child has to be around here somewhere," the other said. "We can't leave here without that girl."

"Who would have thought she could slip the inventory before the transports left," the first said.

"This is the north-western grid search," the second said into her radio. "No sign of the missing material. Are there hits on your searches."

Several other voices, all women, returned with similar negatives, and it looked like Deimosu and the girl above him would get past without any notice.

That was until the crack of a tree spilled the girl above Deimosu tumbling down to the ground. She landed lightly, showing a bit of natural instinct for moving, but precious little training.

"That's her!" one of the women said, moving forward to grab the little girl. "We've got her!"

Deimosu didn't know exactly what was going on, but he'd heard enough to know that he wasn't going to let those two women down there do whatever it was they wanted to do.

The blonde Satomi dropped down out of the tree in a fluid motion striking one of the two women below as she crossed the short distance to the little girl.

The other drew her blade and slashed outward with incredible speed, but only intermediate skill, forming a suspicion in Deimosu's mind as he blocked the first attack.

The suspicion was confirmed when the women he had managed to hit rolled to standing and gestured at him before discharging a blast of raw energy.

"There's an intruder!" she shouted. "Transmitting video!"

Deimosu was casually slamming his knee into the second's abdomen even as he dodged aside the untrained chi blast from the first and tossing out the other woman's blade so that the hilt slammed into the chi-blaster's head. An elbow slamming down into the back of the head of the other woman ended the brief fight.

"Akiras," he commenting with a derisive tsk and a shake of the head. "No training in actually using what they have. Are you okay?"

The black haired girl nodded and brushed herself off as she stood up.

"All squads converge on the northwestern sector," a crackling voice came over the radio of one of the two unconscious women. "Quickly!"

"Let's get out of here," Deimosu said, moving to pick up the girl, who tried ineffectively to resist the grab.

"Put me down!" she said desperately.

They were several miles away, when Deimosu finally stopped and set the girl down.

"I think we'll be safe this far," he said. "What's your name?"

The girl blinked for a moment, hesitating to answer.

"Okay, I'll just let the police find that out when I drop you off at the next town," he said.

"Yaku Go," the girl said.

"What?" Deimosu said.

"That's my name," she said.

Deimosu looked at the numbers on the girl's shirt.

Eight - Ya. Nine - Ku. Five - Go.

"Oh, so you mean like this?" he asked, drawing a kanji in the dirt.

"I don't read kanji," she said.

"Oh, that's 'yaku'," Deimosu said. "It means 'benefit'."

"What's a benefit?" she asked.

"Something that helps a person," the blonde Satomi said.

The girl blinked and looked at the kanji for a moment.

"Does 'Go' mean anything?" she asked.

"It does," Deimosu nodded, drawing another kanji. "That means a few things, to be clear, to be serene, and to be skillful."

"One word means all that?" the girl said, eyes widening. "What's it all mean?"

"Clear means...," Deimosu started, thinking it through, "...talking well, saying what you want and not making mistakes when you talk. Serene is to be calm so when you feel scared or you feel angry you don't let it show. Skillful means you're very good at doing something."

"What am I good at?" she asked.

"That's up to you, I guess," the martial artist told her. "Are you hungry?"

The girl nodded.

"Okay..." he looked around. They were probably safe, but it was better to be cautious. "Come with me and be very quiet, I'm going to see if I can catch something for dinner."

****

"Escaped?" a woman in her mid-thirties with long dark hair said harshly as she turned away from a bank of computer screens. "'Slipped the inventory'? Taken by some random vagabond?"

"Yes, Mistress," the cringing woman on the other end of the camera said.

"How is it that you let the first total success of my efforts 'slip the inventory'?" the woman asked.

"Well, they all look the same..." the younger woman said. "Mostly."

"Nimu," the older woman said. "You are aware that I cannot add controls until a certain physical age is reached, correct?"

"I do, Mistress," the woman said quietly.

"You could very well have lost me the subject," her mistress said bitterly. "You have a limited time, Nimu, before you'll need another booster. So few of the Ichi batch survived development, I would hate to be forced to reduce their numbers further."

"Hai, mistress," the girl said.

"Make sure the subject is in your hands before that becomes necessary," the unnamed woman said. "Place a missing person's report for your younger sister, make sure there is a reward placed."

"Should I include the young-man's image from the monocle transmission?" Nimu asked.

"Not for now," the older woman said. "There is something...familiar about him, and I'd rather not trip any wires that might be there."

******

Author's Note:

Not exactly sure why my section breaks are appearing in the source but not when I open the file on ....though no complaints, so maybe it's only happening to me.


	14. Theories and Motives

"Wait out here," Morrigan said.

"Considering who we're going after," Horus said. "I think it might be better for you not to go alone."

"I'm never really alone," Morrigan noted. "And I'm not going in their looking like some frilly girl that needs support to face up to a restricted licensed rogue."

"This is Zeus," Tyr noted. "It doesn't matter what gesture you make, he'll take it to mean you went out of your way to make a point."

"Well, two cripples and a woman sent to collect me," Zeus said, stepping out of his palace, thunderbolt in hand. "I feel almost insulted."

Morrigan turned slowly around to face the god she'd come to take down.

"Are you intending to resist?" she asked.

"You don't expect me to meekly follow you to tartarus, do you?" Zeus asked.

All four were slowly manuevering around each other, waiting for the first move to be made.

None of them were quite ready for a rather steamed looking woman to come storming out of the palace and slamming Zeus in the back of the head with a solid, metallic urn.

"Adultry is bad enough," Hera sniped at the unconscious diety. "But you are not ruining my house because you're too important to obey the rules!"

Morrigan blinked and looked down at her quarry and up at Hera.

"My...isn't this unsatisfying," Morrigan said.

"And you three can just take him with you," Hera said. "I'm sure he'll try to escape at some point and you can fight him then and destroy whatever landscape happens to be...down there...away from my house!"

Morrigan rolled her head back and shook it before growling irritably and heading out of the palace grounds. Behind her, Tyr and Horus shrugged and then collected Zeus and his weapon.

****

"Yeah, I need that brought in today," Ranma told the salesman. "Your delivery guy can get that done right?"

"Certainly," the man said, nodding. "It'll be there this evening. Do you need any help moving it around?"

"No, I think I can handle that," the red-head said.

She walked out of the furniture store and checked the next step on her list.

"Crystals," she muttered, rolling her eyes.

The weapons and training gear had been mostly salvagable, and what wasn't she'd already replaced.

The quickest way to get crystals were New Age shops, specifically ones that had an artist cutting the crystals for sale.

Ranma hated New Age shops.

Her few crystals, mostly shattered now, were for exorcisms and other such rituals. She wouldn't have bothered with it right now except for one issue:

She was now responsible for teaching a particular soldier how to manipulate chi. Even that alone wouldn't need any particular tools, but she had to get him used to focusing tools as well.

There was no room for complaint however.

It was her that had pushed the training issue.

It was her that had destroyed the crystals she did have.

Hoist on her own emotional triggers. A familiar state of being.

****

"You want what?" Mardukas demanded.

"I want Sol...Sagara to come to me for training," Ranma said.

"Sergeant Sagara is already well trained in hand-to-hand combat," Mardukas retorted.

"Yes," Ranma said. "I heard from the Tom...Chidori-san that he beat a kendo-master that used to harass me when we were his age. Not just beat, but soundly beat. Meaning he might be...almost...as good as I was at his age, stress might. While I could teach him a lot about martial arts, he doesn't outright need me to."

"And if it isn't hand-to-hand combat," Mardukas asked. "Then what other skill do you have that you could teach him. He does not have psionic potential."

"She wants to teach him how to use the lambda driver," Tessa said.

Mardukas looked to his commanding officer as she got off the phone with Kaname Chidori.

"And what would she know about how to use a top secret prototype," Mardukas asked.

"I was there," Ranma said. "I know what I saw. I know what I felt."

The red-head looked around for a moment and directed her hand away from the three. Swiftly enough, the chi she was focusing turned visible and thrust outward, stopping just short of her building's wall as she turned back toward her visitors.

"That's a manifestation of raw, unrefined chi," Ranma said. "It's what your lambda drivers are making. The other thing, the shield? Martial artists call that battle-aura. He hasn't been able to use it outside of points of extreme emotional intensity yet, has he?"

"Given his report," Tessa said. "That's about right."

"If he wasn't piloting one of those things," Ranma said. "He wouldn't need the training. He's actually a more pure battle-specialist than I've ever been. But this mecha of yours needs more than just battle-skills."

"And your mysticism can help him control it?" Mardukas asked.

"Mysticism," Ranma said, rolling his eyes. "Mystics are half-trained morons that put together incomplete theories out of anime and old myths. Chi-use, white magic and black magic have rules, predictable results and measurable capabilities. It just so happens that most of our tools for using and measuring it is in our heads and bodies."

"So you're saying it's not voodoo, it's science?" Mardukas asked in a scoffing tone.

"Think about it," Tessa said. "Science is the process of testing hypotheses and determining their validity. Science is how you gain knowledge, not the knowledge itself. To outright deny a hypotheses without testing is thoroughly unscientific."

"Right," Ranma said nodding. "And the use of that knowledge is where the art comes in. Now, when I was a kid his age, I was an undisciplined lout that could barely think past hi...her fist."

"You sound as if you aren't that different from Sergeant Sagara," Mardukas noted.

"Seriously? Are we talking about the same Sergeant?" Ranma asked.

"There's only one that I know of," the commander said through a grimace.

"The bottom line is that I want to make sure that that young man is as prepared for that thing as possible," Ranma said.

"Loyalty to your new employer, Miss Satomi?" Mardukas asked.

"Loyalty to my daughter," Ranma returned before continuing in a low tone of voice that had Tessa straining to even confirm she was saying anything. "Just like you're here trying to get to know the parent of someone now close to someone you care for."

Mardukas stared at her for a moment.

"That's how you feel about it then?" Mardukas asked.

"That's how I feel about it," Ranma confirmed.

****

"Anyway, crystals," Ranma said to herself as she put aside memories and stopped in front of the new age store.

She checked the sign and looked relieved when she saw indications that they carved their own crystals.

She walked in and immediately rubbed the bridge of her nose over her John-Lennons as she got a look at the chi and other energies within the new age shop.

"Welcome," a cheerful girl said as Ranma entered. "Oh my, your aura is terribly stressed. Maybe we can help you out with some nice incense and maybe a crystal or two."

Ranma sighed, most aura readers that saw Ranma took several minutes trying to figure out what she was.

"Actually, I'm here to by some crystals," Ranma said. "I need to look through your raw, uncut stock."

The girl paused in a bit of confusion.

"We have several already cut crystals, Ma'am," the girl said. "And they're all quite beautiful."

"Yes," Ranma said. "I see that, but none of them are quite what I need. So if you can show me your uncut crystals, I can negotiate a price for them and we can be on our way."

"But then you'd have to do the work yourself," the girl said. "Surely it's more expedient to purchase one of the front-room pieces."

"I'm not looking for sculptures," Ranma said, a little more rudely than she might normally have said. "I need useful crystals."

"The artisan is an expert in cutting crystals, Ma'am," the saleswoman said. "I can assure you..."

"Okay, Miss," Ranma said, patience snapping. "Look here, see this pretty white column here?"

"Yes," the girl said. "That's for focusing and connecting with heaven..."

"It's cut for white magic," Ranma corrected. "It's a crystal connected with black magic. If someone with any power tried to use it in a ritual, pretty much all it would do is explode. Now, this green one here."

"Uh, it's for the enhancement of personal..." the girl started.

"Personal energy, chi, I know," Ranma said. "But it's been cut to look pretty and any use it had is gone."

"There's a bloodstone charm here..." the girl said, turning to indicate said item.

"Which is quite eagerly going to give the wearer's energy to anybody that passes him or her," Ranma finished. "Really, just show me the uncut crystals before I really lose my patience and start demonstrating what's wrong instead of just telling you!"

"Uh, hai," the girl said nervously. "One moment."

The woman walked into the back of the shop.

"Maybe I should see about setting up a deal with some mines or something," Ranma said shaking her head in annoyance.

It was a minute or so later that the young woman came back with a trolley of boxes for Ranma to pick through. After a few good pieces, and picking up the bloodstone charm as well so that she could destroy it before someone unsuspecting stumbled on it, she thanked the woman and started to walk out of the store.

"Excuse me, Ma'am," the girl said.

"Hmm?" Ranma asked at the door.

"You're not looking for an apprentice...are you?" she asked.

"Full up at the moment," Ranma said before walking out of the store. A few yards away she started to mumble. "The only saving grace there is that no one who could actually do anything would ever use any of these."

The fire at Hikaru Gosunkugi's apartment a few days later would have proved that last statement wrong if she'd heard about that.

****

"Sousuke, are you okay?" Shinji said as he came into the classroom and noticed the other boy's bandaged hands.

"I'm fine," he responded. "They are merely minor burns from an incident last night."

"Minor burns?" Kyoko said, joining the conversation with Mizuki next to her. "You look like you stuck your hand into a fire."

"Oh, it wasn't anything like that," Kaname said laughing the burns off nervously. "He just spilled some hot oil while he was cooking."

Mizuki and Kyoko looked at each other. Kaname's nervous laugh was a bit too obvious for them.

"Is that so?" Mizuki asked with a smirk Kaname found worrisome. "You burned it cooking?"

"Affirmative," Sousuke said after a moment.

"Ouch," Shinji said. "Grease burns are painful."

"So you were cooking dinner with Kaname then?" Kyoko asked.

"Affirmative," Sousuke said. "We were roasting chestnuts for a lamb recipe I learned in the guerilla camps in Helmjastad."

"You were cooking a recipe from childhood for Kaname...at whose apartment?" Mizuki asked.

Kaname straightened as she started to see the flaw in their cover plan.

"Well, I've been staying with Miss Chidori the past two days," Sousuke said.

"What!" Kyoko gasped. "Kaname is this true?"

"It's because someone busted the door at his place," Kaname protested quickly. "That's all! The apartment complex is still fixing his door."

"Wow," Mizuki said. "I never would have figured you for that kind of thing, Kaname."

Several sets of eyes turned toward Mizuki as she made that comment.

"What?" she asked, apparently forgetting that she'd met the group after initiating a gossip campaign against Kaname that spread much worse things.

"Are you really staying at Kaname's, Sousuke?" Shinji asked.

"On a temporary basis only," Sousuke said. "I am borrowing a space of her living room floor until repairs can be completed to my residence."

"You sleep on the floor?" Kyoko said, sounded more than a little let down. "That's sort of disappointing. But still a little romantic."

"There's nothing like that going on, really," Kaname insisted.

"I'm not exactly clear on what the issue is," Sousuke said in clear confusion.

"Of course you wouldn't be," Kaname said rolling her eyes.

"So I guess that puts Kaname in the lead right now," Kyoko said.

"In the lead?" Kaname asked.

"Is Miss Chidori in some sort of competition?"

Both Mizuki and Kyoko smiled at the two and laughed knowingly.

_Oh, great, they think Eija and I are love rivals over Sousuke._

_Love rivals? What?_

_Yeah you should see thei...Eija! I can hear you again!_ Kaname sat up looking a combination of relieved and concerned. _I thought you were trying to fix this._

"Miss Chidori is something wrong?" Sousuke asked as he turned to look at Kaname.

_I Think all we did was stop it from getting worse._ Eija thought. _I think the only reason you can hear me right now is..._

_You're back on Earth!_ Kaname declared mentally with a broad smile.

_Yes, that._

"Umm, Kaname," Kyoko said. "You're starting to scare us over here."

"Oh, sorry about that," Kaname said. "I just remembered...Eija's supposed to be back in town today. And I just had this feeling that she was somewhere nearby."

She glanced over at Sousuke and winked at him with a thumbs up. He took a moment to look at her in confusion before nodding as he realized what she meant.

Kaname wasn't certain, but she thought she saw his shoulders relax a little at her delivery.

****

"You look a little distracted, Eija-chan," Urd said to her charge as they stepped into the temple. "Glad to be back so soon?"

"I was just talking to Kaname," Eija said.

"Oh," Belldandy said coming from further in the temple. "I'd guess she's glad to know you're back too."

"I'll be interested in meeting her soon myself," a fourth goddess said. "And your mother."

Eija turned to look at the other woman, standing beside her with grey hair contrasting a grave, youthful face.

"Hai, grandmother," Eija said.

_Grandmother?!?_ Kaname thoughts carried to Eija.

"If you please, Lady Persephone," Belldandy said. "We had a call from a friend of ours to ask that we wait for her to speak to Miss Satomi first."

"Oh, who would that be?" Persephone asked, honestly curious.

****

Ranma could feel the powerful energies behind the door well before she heard the knock. In fact, it was familiar.

She'd felt this particular energy once before, very recently.

Ranma narrowed her eyes as she walked to the door and opened it on the image of a blonde European woman with fangs that the martial artist had seen once before.

"Well?" Mara asked.

A brief instant later, and she was doubled over Ranma's fist, eyes wide. And Mara was able to confirm that was a lot more than a thousand punches that connected.

Ranma, fury clear on her face, coolly helped Mara straighten herself and waited for the demoness to catch her breath.

Then the red-head's elbow slammed into the demoness's lower back, with similar insane frequency, causing Mara to arch backwards and almost lose her balance. Bracing herself against Ranma's shoulder, Mara slowly recovered from that impact.

Wordlessly, Ranma gripped the demoness's shoulder and stopped, sensing that the flesh there was already injured. Grimacing, she moved around to Mara's other side and swiftly pulled the shoulder out of joint, covering the demoness's mouth to contain the involuntary scream that followed.

Mara leaned into her, arm hanging loose at her side and shakily waited for the shock to fade so that she could prepare herself for whatever came next.

Unmoving as a statue, Ranma let Mara lean against her until the demoness pushed away and was standing straight again, the one arm hanging loosely at her side. She took a deep breath and nodded at Ranma with a grimace.

The red-head stepped forward and matter of factly rammed the arm back into place.

If anything, that hurt worse than the original dislocation and Ranma found herself having to fully catch the demoness and actively prop Mara up before she could wrap her mind around steadying herself.

"Have I made myself clear?" Ranma asked coolly.

Mara nodded wordlessly, still leaning against her student's mother.

"Where's Naiki?" Ranma asked.

"On her way," Mara said.

The demoness didn't have to add that she hadn't wanted Naiki to be present for this. The fact that Mara was alive and not bruised visibly was proof enough that Ranma had realized what she was doing.

"Come in, we'll wait for her inside," Ranma said, moving slowly toward the door and letting Mara lean on her until they reached a couch for her to sit down on.

****

"Kaname! Sousuke!" Eija called out as she turned the corner to see the other two.

Quickly she moved forward to hug both of the them, to the surprise of each. Though, they probably would have known better if they had seen Ranma meeting her kids after some questionable seperations.

_We've been talking since you got back,_ Kaname thought.

_That's not the same as seeing you two,_ Eija returned.

Behind them coming out of the school, Kyoko pulled out her camera and clicked a picture.

"Miss Satomi, is everything okay?" Sousuke asked the girl that was currently wrapped around him and Kaname.

"Umm, fine, Sousuke," Eija said.

"Everybody's watching us," Kaname whispered through a smiling face.

Embarassed suddenly, Eija let go of the other two and stepped back, suddenly aware that she'd started no small number of rumors as the other students walked past them.

"It's good to see you're both safe, Miss Satomi, Miss Chidori," Sousuke said to the blushing girl.

"Both..." Mizuki started to ask.

"Those are neat tattoos by the way," Kaname said suddenly, cutting off Mizuki from wondering about why Sousuke would think they were both in danger.

"Oh, they're cute," Kyoko said, snapping a picture.

"They're not exactly tattoos," Eija said.

"They're an inherited mark," a new voice said. "Usually our family has them at birth, but sometimes it takes a while to show up."

Everyone turned toward the tall, grey-haired woman with the youthful smiling face and marks small, seed-shaped blue marks at the corners of her eyes and a blue circle with a small oval taken out of it on her forehead.

As she moved forward, the usual small area of space formed by people diverting around Eija grew significantly.

Sousuke frowned and started to step forward.

"Grandmother?" Kaname asked.

"Grandmother," Eija confirmed.

"I see," Sousuke noted, stepping back slightly and relaxing.

"Sousuke, Kaname, Kyoko," Eija said formally. "This is my...father's mother. Persephone DisPater."

"Ma'am," Sousuke said with a cautious nod.

"I guess...I'm pleased to meet you," Kaname said.

_Persephone...as in..._ Kaname asked Eija.

_Queen of the Underworld._

"Sousuke Sagara, Kaname Chidori" Persephone said with a measuring smile. "I've been reading your files."

"Files?" Kyoko asked.

Sousuke blinked and wondered what sort of file he had in Heaven.

"Kyoko," Persephone said turning to the other girl. "I'm glad to see there are still some people that are truly accepting of all people."

"Umm, thank you," Kyoko said. "You look a little young to be a grandmother."

"I've aged well," Persephone said.

"We were heading home, Kaname and Sousuke," Eija said. "Would you come with m...us?

"I'd like to get to know the both of you a bit better myself," Persephone said.

"Umm, why?" Kaname asked.

"That's a matter for private discussion," Persephone said quietly before turning toward Eija and saying something in Greek.

_What did she say?_

_She said that we're lucky we get along so well,_ Eija returned. _She imagines that some links would just about drive people crazy._

****

Tessa looked up from her own work as she felt the strengthening of a presence in the back of her mind.

_Miss Satomi?_ she asked.

_Hey, Tessa! Wow, you're nowhere nearby._

_No, I guess I'm not. Is everything fixed?_

_Yes, it is. I'm a full fledged demon now, so we're not going to have to worry about melting into each other._

_That's good to hear,_ Tessa said with a smile. _I'm guessing you'll be seeing your mother again then. I'm glad. She's been worried._

_I'll bet my brother and sister have been complaining, too,_ Naiki responded.

Unlike Naiki and Kaname, Tessa had more than a few experiences with telepathy and knew how to avoid accidentally blurting out information, but some emotions still leaked through.

_Something wrong?_ Naiki asked. _Did something happen?!_

_Your sister had a similar problem as we did,_ Tessa said.

Naiki flinched as she recalled Kaname's spirit bleeding into Eija and cursed herself for forgetting that with her own problems.

_She and Kaname...?_

_No, they should be safe if we are. Eija went to Heaven for the same reason you went to Hell._

_Come to think of it, Geisthexe-san did say there was someone else casting spells that night._

Idly, Tessa wondered if life with Naiki in the back of her head was going to involve having to hear every thought that went through the other girl's head.

She sighed and shook her head.

_Wait, what about Deimosu, is he fine?_

_I...don't know. You'll have to ask your mother. She hasn't said much of what's going on there._

Tessa enjoyed a few moments of mental quiet again as she bent to her task of working on the Whispered version of the Demon and God transformation devices.

_So I'm a demon and my sister's a goddess...that's weird._

Tessa sighed and restrained herself from insensitively demanding quiet.

_Yes. I can see how that would be._ She kept her thoughts about how useful it was far below her surface thoughts.

_I wonder if Geisthexe-san knew about any of this._

Tessa was rapidly coming to understand the concept of captive audience.

_I wouldn't know._ Tessa responded.

Really Naiki was a likeable enough person. And she did owe her life to the girl. And Naiki had just learned a few unpleasant things, from Tessa at that...

_I wonder what time it is._

...but trying to figure out which thoughts were directed at her and which were just floating randomness was...tiring and aggravating.

_I'm guessing you're going to need some privacy, coming up,_ Tessa thought with deliberate calmness. _So I'm going to try an experiment and block you out for a bit. Kind of like you did to me just before you left._

_The other...?...umm okay...How do I know if it w..._

Well, she could still feel Naiki's emotions, but the mental chatter had quieted to an acceptable level. Save the one time her name was practically shouted before things got quiet again.

****

_Tessa? Tessa? TESSA!_ Naiki waited for a little bit to see if there was a response.

"Okay," she said. "I guess that worked."

She'd have to thank Tessa for going to the effort later

The young demoness checked her watch and noted the time before starting to walk down the street. It was about fifteen minutes past the time Mara had told her to wait for.

She bit her lip nervously, still trying to process the fact that her mother had been alone the last two days, and that her brother and sister were gone.

She was considering this as she walked down the road, toward the warehouse her family had been living in the past few months. It didn't take long to pick up Geisthexe-san's scent, but it was in the direction she was going anyway so it hardly mattered.

Naiki stopped at the outer wall of the warehouse and took a deep breath before walking up the path toward the building and into the door.

The furniture was new.

That was a bad sign.

Geisthexe-san was sitting on a couch with an ice-pack on her shoulder and past that was her mother, practicing katas. The older demoness nodded quietly in that direction.

"Ummm, 'Kaasan," Naiki said, stepping forward.

Ranma stopped and turned around to see her daughter standing there, and the amount of relief visible behind her calm expression was painful to watch.

"I'm back," she said.

Ranma walked up to her and hugged the green-haired girl tightly for several seconds before stepping back and examining the red marks on Naiki's face.

"Welcome home," Ranma said. "I'll get some food started."

Naiki was about to ask about Eija and Deimosu when something occurred to her. She looked over at Mara, pointed at the ice pack on the shoulder and scrunched up her eyes.

"Weren't you shot in the other shoulder?" she asked, finger pointing between the two shoulders.

"I had an accident getting here," Mara said.

The door opened then, letting in Eija and company.

"Okaasan!" Eija called out. "I'm...Naiki."

Eija stopped short inches away from her taller, green-haired sister and looked up into the other girl's red-marked face.

The two stared at each other for several seconds taking in the changes to each other.

On the couch, Mara stood up as she recognized the woman coming in with Eija and the two humans, and truly wished that she could afford to teleport away just now.

The scene was interrupted as Ranma moved in to hug both her children tightly.

****

In the kitchen, Ranma had drafted Kaname and Eija to cooking for the surprise influx of visitors.

The red-head was both relieved by the delay at speaking to her children and firmly aggravated. A fact that Kaname and Eija had both noted.

_Usually, Okaasan is a very good cook._ Eija noted.

_Yeah, I've had dinner here before._ Kaname agreed. _Found another piece of cutting board._

_These were new kitchen tools,_ Eija noted as she threw away another knife.

"Okay, not exactly my best work," Ranma said with a flat tone that Eija recognized as her trying not react emotionally. "But it should be edible."

"Oh, it looks fine Satomi-san," Kaname said.

"Yeah," Ranma said, doubtfully. "I believe that."

She looked out of the kitchen to the living room where her other daughter sat with Sousuke and the other two "guests."

Sousuke was overlooking the situation and finding it somewhat reminescent of times when he'd been on hand as security for the meetings of officials from opposing factions.

Currently, they were picking at the fruit their host had put out and staring at each other across the table. The demoness was, to Sousuke's eyes, notably more nervous, but still refusing to back down.

"Enjoying probation?" Persephone inquired.

The demoness picked up a piece of fruit and held it out to the Queen of the Underworld.

"Pomegranate? Mara asked.

"No, thank you," Persephone said, looking over Mara's outfit. "That's a lovely white trash look, by the way."

"Really," Mara responded. "I suppose a trophey wife would be an expert on all things skanky."

Both other-worldly women narrowed their eyes and continued glaring. Though the sweat at Mara's brow left no doubt who was getting the better of the staredown.

Yes, this was a very familiar situation, Sousuke reasoned.

At about this point Ranma walked in from the kitchen and set down the prepared food.

"Okay," she said and then moved on before anybody could respond. "Who here knows what happened with me a decade and a half ago?"

"I do," Persephone noted.

"A little," Eija said quietly from Ranma's side.

Very quietly, almost trying not to attract attention, Mara wincingly raised her hand.

Persephone stared at Mara, noting her hesitance with the human martial artist and arched an eye brow in consideration.

For her part, Ranma was mostly looking at Eija, a grimace clearly on her face.

"And the facts of the matter are important to what you're here to talk about," Ranma said with a fake, smile. "Am I right."

"Unfortunately so," Persephone noted.

"Okay then," Ranma said, rubbing her forehead. "Naiki, Eija, we're going to my room. Everybody else, enjoy the food. This is my house. All smiting privileges are mine."

With that said she turned around and walked through the practice floor towards the stairwell leading up to her bedroom and study, Eija following. A little behind her, Naiki stood up and followed looking completely lost.

"Smiting privileges," Persephone said. "What an amusing joke."

"That was not a joke," Sousuke said. "I have found Miss Satomi to be rather glib with her threats, but she tends not to bluff."

"It's really not a joke," Mara said in agreement.

****

Ranma sat down on her bed and crossed her arms and legs as she considered how to break the news...to Naiki at least.

"I was going to wait to tell you all this for a little bit," Ranma said. "But, at least two of you already learned."

"Learned what?" Naiki asked as she snagged Ranma's office chair before Eija could, ignoring the young goddess's irritated sigh.

"I have to tell you something about your other parents..." Ranma said.

It was a few minutes to tell the story and Ranma watched the reactions of her girls.

"I thought it was just the one," Eija said quietly before moving hesitantly to sit down beside her mother and wrap her arms around the red-head.

Ranma sighed and patted Eija's arms, amused by the girl's attempts to comfort her.

Naiki was another story.

"The Gods did this?" Naiki said angrily. "Heaven. Source of love, justice and all that crap?"

She paced over to Ranma's window and cracked open one of the blinds to look down at their guests.

"You let one of their mothers in the house!?" Naiki demanded. "A bunch of hypocrites."

"They are not!" Eija protested, standing up. "Anything that can think can be prone to bad decisions."

"My actual quote is," Ranma noted. "'Anything with a brain can fuck up.'"

"Err, right," Eija said.

"So why don't we go down there and kick her out right now?" Naiki said.

"The Gods didn't obscure facts from one of my daughters that there were two options for fixing a problem she was having," Ranma noted firmly. "Or deny me the chance to really see her off. So forgive me if I think both sides have their faults."

Naiki hopped from one foot to another, trying to keep her temper on hand while thinking things through.

"But, they..." Naiki said, uncertain. "And you never said anything."

Ranma walked up to her and laid both arms on her shoulders.

"Do you think I ever wanted to put this sort of burden on any of you?" she asked. "I knew it would come back on us. I knew I'd have to tell you. I was just hoping it wouldn't be until after college."

"You're going to let these people who hurt you in our house," Naiki asked grimmly.

"These people haven't hurt me," Ranma said, lying a little bit in the case of Mara.

At least from Ranma's perspective.

"And...my...that woman," Eija said. "She's a criminal. She stole relics from heaven and ran. There's something more to this than just a..." she glanced at her human mother helplessly.

"Someone's been pulling our strings," Ranma said. "And it's probably not them out there."

"What if they try something again?" Naiki asked.

"Then we'll fight back," Ranma promised. "God, Demon, Human or whatever, we stand together. You with me?"

"I agree," Eija said firmly.

Naiki paused a moment, trying to juggle the emotions that were telling her to march out there and beat the hell out of Persephone and the resolution to think before acting.

Her mother was saying to wait and see who was really behind things.

"I don't have to like them," Naiki said. "Well, except for Eija."

****

Tessa paused in her work. She'd need to double check the design with Kaname anyway, but that wasn't why she was pausing.

The intensity of emotion coming through her link with Naiki was almost overwhelming. And they were hardly pleasant emotions.

Setting her drafting pencil down, she slowly unblocked her link.

It was like opening the door to a sound-proofed room and finding a TV blaring at full volume on the other side.

_Naiki,_ she thought firmly. _Calm down._

_Calm down!_ Naiki snapped. _I just learned that I was born because the fucking Gods raped my mother._

_The Gods..._ Tessa repeated. _In general?_

_No...three specific ones,_ Naiki said. _The mother of one of them is here. Persephone. She came with Eija._

_Do you think your mother would mind if I listen in?_ Tessa asked, leaning back. _You'll need to think about everything people say so that I can hear it._

_'Kaasan, Tessa wants to know if it's okay to listen in._  
'Kaasan, Tessa wants to know if it's okay to listen in.

_'Sousuke will just report it anyway, so why not.' That's what she said._

Tessa opened her desk and pulled a notepad out, picking up a pen.

_Thank you,_ Tessa said. _Maybe I can help you untangle some of this._

****

"Miss Chidori, are you okay?" Sousuke asked as he noted how pale Kaname was getting.

"Likely she's getting Eija's side of the conversation taking place above," Persephone said.

"You mean about your husband's games?" Mara asked snidely.

Sousuke frowned as he listened to the conversation. He'd seen Ranma's file, including the reported sexual assault. But the report in the file indicated a female perpetrator. Granted, these were supernatural beings, they might be able to change gender.

"My husband," Persephone said a bit surprised. "Is that what she wants you to think?"

Mara looked back at the Iron Queen in confusion for a moment.

The conversation was cut short as the Satomis came back down into the living area.

"Okay," Ranma said. "Everybody's up to speed."

Naiki sat down next to Mara, glaring hatefully at Persephone as she did so.

"In that case," the grey-haired goddess said. "I should note that Zeus and Poseiden were both taken into custody and are now being held in Tartarus. Hecate, unfortunately, seems to have prepared for this and has left."

"Hecate," Mara said. "Hecate is behind this?"

"And took a bunch of weapons too," Naiki said. "Right?"

"That is correct," Persephone said reluctantly. "I see having a grand-daughter with a demon for a sister is going to be...interesting."

"No better than a grandmother with a rapist for a daughter," Naiki said. The grey-haired goddess's eyes narrowed as she started to rise from her seat.

"Naiki," Ranma said firmly. "And, lady, you're a guest in my house, so watch what you say about my children here."

"My apologies," Persephone said, sitting back down. "You're right, I am the one that owes you. And your...child is correct about mine."

"What sort of person is this Hecate?" Sousuke asked. "It sounds as if she is the sort to prepare things carefully in advance and not prone to doing things simply for the thrill."

"That's accurate," Persephone said. "She's been handling Yggdrassil security for millenia."

"But you guys had the wrong information," Kaname noted. "In fact, I recognize Geisthexe-san from school, and she'd been around for almost a month. So they knew about you guys a long time before the...Gods did."

Mara looked around at everybody.

"They were also given false information," Sousuke said.

"I understand where you're going with this," Mara said. "You're saying that Hecate is working with some of our people. That's impossible."

Naiki's head seemed to be switching between whoever was talking, half mouthing what they were saying.

"My daughter made no secret of her dislike of demons," Persephone said. "She has even refused to acknowledge Heaven's demonic citizens. It would be very unlike her to cooperate with any demon, much less one still within Nifelheim."

"There aren't any demons that would work with her either," Mara said. "She's got too much of a reputation from before the truce. And we're fairly certain she hasn't reincarnated once since before the truce."

"What? No, I'm sure she's reincarnated at least once recently," Persephone said. "She was out of touch for some years."

"Whatever. I've known people that would kill each other without thinking about it," Ranma said. "Work together to get rid of a bigger problem. Or at least try to. And I've known people who play tricks to make others dance to their tune."

"Hecate prefers a...personal touch," Persephone noted.

"I know," Ranma said harshly. "I've felt it."

"But she does have a manipulative bent," the Iron Queen added, shifting in shame at Ranma's statement. "Unfortunately, without knowing what her goals are, there is little we can say about her plans."

"You're being quiet suddenly," Eija noted to Naiki.

"I'm trying to keep track of what's going on for Tessa," Naiki explained.

"I get the feeling there's something missing that's right in front of somebody's face," Kaname said.

"I have to agree with Miss Chidori," Sousuke said.

"If I may, where is your son, Miss Satomi," Persephone asked.

"He eavesdropped on a conversation I had with an old friend," Ranma said. "Went off on his own the same night these two did."

"Then I am still at a loss," Persephone said. "It seems more and more as if she has simply gone insane."

"Go too long without reliving life, that happens to a God or Demon," Mara noted.

Persephone glared at Mara for the comment.

"Maybe you should check," Naiki said suddenly. "On when she last reincarnated."

"I will, if only to disprove that woman's ridiculous theory," the Queen noted before leveling a look at Naiki as well.

"So, are we getting any answers?" Ranma asked.

"It doesn't seem so, Miss Satomi," Sousuke said.

"Then maybe everybody could head home and I could have a night with my daughters," Ranma asked.

"Yeah, we're getting nowhere," Mara said quickly as Ranma suggested that.

"I shall take my leave as well," Persephone said, standing up herself. "One thing however. Ranma Satomi, my daughter has done you a grave disservice. If you wish, my husband and I would be pleased to accept you in her place."

Mara froze from where she was in the middle of standing up.

"You're offering to adopt me," Ranma said.

"And give you a place as a goddess," Persephone said. "Full standing as mine and Hades' youngest child. Granted, you'll still have to earn a standing in Asgard."

Naiki listened cautiously, and feeling a bit of relief that she hadn't given in to her first impulse to attack the goddess on hearing what her daughter had done to Naiki's mother.

Of course her mother was strong, it only made sense for the Gods to want to recruit her.

"I think I'll stay human," Ranma said.

"I understand," Persephone said, standing up and looking at Naiki. "However, you and yours shall still be considered family regardless of species. And one other thing."

The goddess reached out and lightly touched Ranma on the head with a cold wind and grey light surrounding her.

Naiki took a step forward, narrowing her eyes, but was stopped by Mara who shook her head with a reassuring look.

When it ended, Persephone brought down her hand with a brief smile.

"That might be easier to live with now," she said.

"Mara," Persephone said. "Try not to spark off any more armaggeddon programs."

Ranma frowned and stood up, crossing her arms as she watched Persephone walk out of the house.

Naiki chased out of the house to go confront Persephone, Ranma tried to stop her at the doo, but Naiki was already out in front of the leaving goddess.

"What did you do to my mother," she demanded.

"I fixed something that was broken, little demon," the goddess answered. "It's not my place to say more. Though your mother might find that the trigger is different from what she was used to."

"Used to, what?" Naiki demanded.

She looked back toward her mother and noticed a wide-eyed thoughtful expression on the red-head's face. Then she turned back to face Persephone.

"It better not be any...." Naiki started to say.

"Before you continue this accusatory tone," Persephone noted. "You might be interested to know that your mother and I share an unfortunate relationship with Zeus."

"He's done this before?" Naiki asked.

"Don't you know your Greek mythology, Naiki?" Persephone asked before turning toward Ranma and bowing. "Again, good night."

The goddess continued walking and, as she reached the intersection of the roads, vanished.

"Gods are always fond of their dramatic exits," Mara said shaking her head.

"Speaking of dramatic exits, Geisthexe," Ranma said narrowly, turning to face the blonde demon.

"Right," Mara said, quickly. "See you in class tomorrow, Naiki."

She vanished into a puff of smoke.

"'Kaasan," Naiki said. "Did you threaten to beat up Geisthexe-san?"


	15. Rest and Relaxation Part 1

Kaname had a very clear image of the way her summer break should go.

A long, sandy beach.

Hardly anybody around.

A romantic sunset.

Her dressed in a skimpy white bikini that cleanly displayed her truly physical charms.

Eija in a gothy black mesh suit with appropriate solid patches at her side.

Light and dark and together, an image no man could possibly resist. Not even an uncivilized stray like a certain Sergeant, specialist, whatever.

And, as the sun settled down on scene, the three figures coming softly close together, they would have their sweet summer memories.

Part of her felt it was slightly perverted, but the image seemed to fit in so naturally she just went with it. Besides, who was going to know what she day dreamed?

She closed her eyes briefly and then opened them up to see:

"Annual Narashino Arms Slave Competition"

And she sighed in disappointment from her place across the street from the festival.

"Please don't tell me this is supposed to be the highlight of my summer," Kaname said, before looking at her friends.

Kyoko and Mizuno were waiting patiently on one side.

Eija was staring at her with wide eyes and a tomato-red expression.

_Was I thinking that outloud,_ Kaname asked hesitantly.

_In high definition_ came the embarassed reply. _Err...Who was sharing wh.....nevermind..._

"At least we're still in Chiba, right?" Kyoko asked. "Uh, Eija...Kanamae...are you all right?"

"Good grief, Kaname," Mizuki said. She was staying as far from Eija as she could and still be polite. "If you were going to throw such a fit, you should have said something when Shinji suggested the idea."

Kaname flinched.

"Quit acting like a victim just because you didn't get your way," Mizuki continued, causing the blue-haired girl to flinch again.

"All right," Sousuke called out from the festival. "I've checked security out, we can go in now."

"Oh, I wonder what I should do if a hot BS pilot comes up to me and asks me to play BS with him," Mizuki asked.

"I thought they were called AS's," Eija said.

"They are," Kaname noted, rolling her eyes.

"Unless she's thinking of a completely different acronym," Kyoko noted.

Mizuki looked at the other three-girl's suddenly thoughtful and embarrassed faces.

"What?! I would never think of that!" she shouted. "What are you thinking of anyway? What kind of perverted wordplay can you get out of BS?"

Sousuke looked on at the girls in a state of complete bewilderment as to what was going on between the four girls. Especially as Eija and then Kaname looked at him and blushed, looking quickly in opposite directions.

"I really don't understand girls," he said as they walked into the festival.

And then he stopped and looked to the side of some of the games and food vendors where some people were working on something...unique.

"Hey, Sousuke," Shinji said. "What's the matter, you just...oh my god."

"dess," Eija corrected, turning to face the other kid. "Oh, is that who I think it is?"

"Wow, that's the smallest AS I've ever seen," Kyoko noted, taking a picture of the eight-foot tall vehicle.

"That's Belldandy and Keiichi," Kaname confirmed for Eija.

Sousuke was already walking over to the group's area and moving up to examine the AS.

"Amazing," he thought as he examined the unit. "It's so compact."

"This...this," Shinji said. "This is impossible!"

"Excuse me," a girl's voice said sharply. "What are you looking at so closely?"

"Relax, Skuld," another voice said, and Sousuke looked over to see Keiichi. "Don't you recognize Eija there? Besides, we're going over it in public to let people see it anyway."

"Do you know these people Eija?" Kyoko asked. Then she noted the marks on their face.

"I stayed with them during my medical problem a couple of weeks ago," Eija noted.

"They have the same marks as you," Mizuki said. "Isn't that a family thing?"

"A distant branch," Eija explained.

"We've met Sousuke and Kaname as well," a kind sounding young woman noted as she came to stand next to Keiichi.

"You built this?" Sousuke asked, indicating the miniature AS.

"Yea..." Keiichi started to say.

"That's right," a loud boistrous voice declared. People looked to find the short-haired form of Chihiro Fujimi as she leaned against the machine. "This is Whirlwind's very first AS design, the Scirroco!"

"How'd you fit the hydraulics into that small machine?" Shinji asked.

"We couldn't fit the hydraulics in," Keiichi said. "Not and remain usuable. So we decided to use the electro-active polymers for all motion. Got the idea from the X-9 that the Americans are testing."

"A third generation drive system," Sousuke thought. "Just like the M-9's we use in Mithril."

He continued outloud.

"What are you using for power generation?" he asked.

"Well," Megumi said. "We were having troubles with that as well. But we're using a basic battery to start it up, after that, it's own motion will produce all the power it needs."

"I still think we should have incorporated Banpei's battery designs," Skuld protested.

"Skuld-chan," Chihiro said, ruffling the young goddess's hair. "Banpei's batteries put three city-blocks into blackout to charge up and are several hundred pounds. That's why he's limited to the area right around the temple, right?"

"Well, it would mean power deficiencies when you're getting up from a stand-still," Sousuke said. "But it is an extremely efficient solution to the problem, as long as you stay in motion. What's the skin made of."

"Titanium alloys in a honeycombed lattice," Megumi said. "You know, like in BattleTech?"

"You play BattleTech?" Sousuke asked. "I've just recently discovered that game."

"Oh, a little bit, hard to find people to play," Megumi said.

Eija and Kaname came to attention at that moment and stepped forward of Sousuke.

"Oh yes, it is a very intriguing game," Eija said. "I've been helping Sousuke-KUN paint his miniatures."

"I like helping sculpt his custom models myself," Kaname said.

"Is that so?" Megumi said, smirking as she took in the actions of the other two girls and looked smirkingly at Sousuke. "We'll have to play out a match sometime, my lance against yours."

"You can bet on it," Kaname said.

Sousuke watched the exchange in confusion next to Keiichi and Belldandy.

"What is that about?" he asked.

Belldandy turned to look at Sousuke with a knowing smile.

Chihiro cocked an eyebrow at the united front put out by the blue-haired tomboy and the creepy goth chick before looking toward the confused Sagara.

"Lucky, lucky boy," she said, snickering.

****

The boys and Chihiro had moved off to get food for the group, leaving Megumi and Skuld to run last checks on the scirroco and for Bellydandy chat with the Jindai girls.

"So who's going to pilot it," Kyoko asked.

"Probably Keiichi," Megumi said. "Either him or Chihiro, they tend to trade off on the test-piloting."

"I think it's Keiichi's turn," Belldandy said. "How are you doing, Kaname and Eija?"

Kaname looked to her "normal" friends with a decidedly embarassed expression, that they had no trouble noticing.

"Everything is fine," Eija assured Belldandy, without much concern. "Though it takes some getting used to."

"What are you guys talking about?" Mizuki asked.

"Nothing," Kaname said quickly. "Noth..."

Fortunately for Kaname a distraction appeared at that point, preventing her from having to explain things.

Or perhaps, given the form of the distraction, unfortunately.

"What's this then?" a voice asked. "Such a wonderful collection of lovely young women have come to this year's festival."

The collected mechanics, pilots and festival goers turned around to see a tall man wearing a red tank-top with a military dress-jacket draped over his shoulders.

"I am Mikado Sanzenin," he said, taking Belldandy's hand and bowing over it fancily, bringing a slight blush to the goddess's face.

From there he passed to take Eija's hand.

"Cap..." he froze and shivered visibly as he touched the young goddess's hand and quickly turned toward Kaname.

Eija sighed, the whether from irritation at her normal problem, or relief that it had spared her unwanted attention in this case, it was hard to tell.

"Captain of the Nerima Red Dragon AS team," he completed, bowing over Kaname's hand, not noticing the girl's rather unimpressed expression.

IYou're lucky/I Kaname thought dryly.

IIt comes in handy sometimes,/I Eija replied.

"Oh, how handsome!" Mizuki squealed from behind Kaname, where she stood watching with Kyoko.

Back near the machine, a non-pulsed Skuld and Megumi watched the proceedings with something akin to a glare.

"If you're so impressed with the toy these girls playing engineer have made," he said. "Maybe you'd like to see the inside of a real AS."

"Well, that's a bit rude," Belldandy thought as her smile diminished slightly.

IWho does this guy think he is?/I Kaname demanded in disbelief, verging on actual anger.

II feel like taking a bath,/I Eija noted with a bit more passive distaste.

"Oh wow," Kyoko gasped. "He's actually hitting on...somebody."

"TOY?! Playing engineer?!" Skuld thought in growing fury.

"Good grief," Megumi wondered to herself. "Who's going to fall for that?"

"OH! I'd love to!" Mizuki said, pushing herself in front of everybody else.

Sanzenin brushed past Mizuki as if she weren't there and took up Belldandy and Kaname's hands.

"I have tasted of the lips of more than a thousand maidens," he said. "And in you two I have found a match, nay, a superior to the most beautiful and exotic of those."

"That is very flattering," Belldandy said. "But I'm afraid my heart belongs to someone already."

"Then I must break such unworthy bonds so that you might see that such permanence is worthless," he said.

Belldandy, slowly losing even her patience pulled her hand back.

"I'm sorry, Mister Sanzenin," Belldandy said. "I cannot approve of this behavior of yours. Your actions can lead to nothing but a sad, hollow existence, and I hope you learn to escape it before it is too late."

"Well, I'm certain the blue-haired beauty is less blind to my charms," Sanzenin said. "Mikado Sanzenin, the Captain of the Red Dragon, Emperor of competitive AS events, truly has never tasted of defeat either in love or on the field."

"Well, you're about to," Kaname said brushing his hand aside forcefully. "Excuse me, if I'm interested in Nerima daikon, I'll buy some."

"That's red dragon!" Sanzenin corrected her.

And with that she walked off away from the scene, leaving Sanzenin confused as to whether to follow her or stay and keep wooing Belldandy.

"She's even more beautiful angry," he muttered in slight indecision, as turned toward Belldandy. "But your serenity is so appealing."

"Excuse me," a young voice said from in front of him.

He looked down and blinked as the youngest of the assorted females handed him a knobby device and walked away, with obvious speed.

Megumi quickly reached out and pulled away Kyoko and Mizuko from the man's area.

Eija, recognizing the signs also stepped back cleanly.

And then the Skuld-Bomb exploded over the thirty-something pervert.

"I think," he said, coughing. "I'll go clean up a bit. Perhaps I'll see again when the children are in bed."

He waverly walked off, trying to keep his dignity.

"Skuld," Belldandy said, with somewhat less disapproval than normal. "I thought you had better control of your temper."

"Hey, that's the second time that pervert has said I'm 'playing' at being an engineer," she said in her defense.

"Ecchi bastard pulled that stuff on Chihiro a few weeks ago," Megumi noted.

"Damn it," Mizuki declared. "Why'd he look at Kaname and ignroe me? Damn it! I'll have my revenge!"

"I'm not exactly certain it's her fault," Kyoko noted. "And at least you just got ignored. He treated Eija like a snake or a spider or something."

"Well, she's creepy," Mizuki said defensively.

"It's fine," Eija said with a smile and dismissive wave. "This time it was actually something of a blessing."

****

Naiki sat on the roof and thought back to the day after she and Eija had returned home.

****

"'Kaasan," Naiki had asked the next day as the morning practice ended. "What did that goddess mean she fixed something that was broken."

"And she said something about the trigger being different," Eija had added.

Ranma looked thoughtful as her daughters asked that question, having something stronger than a feeling that she knew what it was about. She could feel a certain old magic coming alive in her again, but she hadn't yet reached out to it yet.

"Okaasan?" Eija asked as the silence stretched on.

"I used to shapechange," Ranma said finally. "Before the Gods."

"What, you're a shifter?" Naiki said, curiously, taking a deep sniff. "I thought the cat smell was just the neko-ken."

Ranma's neck cricked.

"No," she said. "I. Do. Not. Change. Into. A. Cat."

"Umm," Eija said. "What did you used to change into then?"

Ranma thought very carefully how to say this.

"I used to change genders," Ranma said finally, not specifying which gender she was born with.

"Really?" Naiki said thoughtfully. A moment later the comment was followed with another: "That could be fun."

"You know, a lot of things suddenly make sense," Eija noted.

"About me or your sister?" Ranma asked from where she was staring at Naiki and shaking her head.

"Umm, yes?" Eija said.

****

That was a bit of a surprise, but it was somewhat small compared to the other family secret revealed the night before that.

Right now, she had other things to occupy her mind as she cricked her joints and started walking towards the rickety old building.

"Hey, amateurs!" she shouted as she walked up into the main room.

The three bulky karateka inside the building stopped their sparring to turn around and face her, flinching.

"Satomi," they said, looking about. "Is your mother with you?"

"Nope," she said. "Hayashimizu sent me. Where's Tsubaki?"

"Brother Tsubaki is out attending to family errands," one of the bulky men said. "And if you're here from Hayashimizu, then you're here to tell us to leave the sacred dojo."

"The sacred death-trap, you mean," she said, looking about and rolling her eyes.

"Be warned, Satomi," a second said. "We have been engaging in extreme training since our last confrontation and we have no doubt that we shall prevail should you attempt to evict us from this our dojo."

"You're certain that your mother's not with you," third said.

"I'm certain," Naiki said. "And I'm certain it doesn't matter, since I'm not the same as I used to be either."

"It matters not," one of the amateurs said. "There is no way you can remove us from this building."

Naiki rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"You mean this building?" Naiki asked turning about to touch the wall next to her.

Issei Tsubaki was walking up to the dojo behind the school grounds, irritably enough his rarely present father behind him, when they saw the side of the dojo wall explode outward in a hail of splinters.

"The hell is going on?" Issei demanded moving to rush forward.

"Wait," his father said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "I know that technique. Whoever's in there could be helpful."

Meanwhile, the roof started to cave in on the dojo until it was stopped by something and then it exploded just as the wall did.

In the aftermath of dust and splinters the three karateka stumbled out, peppered in splinters and coughing dazedly.

"What the heck happened?" Issei asked as he approached his friends.

"Satomi," one said, pointing as the green-haired Naiki stepped out of the debris brushing herself off.

"Satomi!" he shouted. "What is the meaning of this assault on our premises."

"Hayashimizu asked me to evict you," the green-haired martial artist said. "The building's dangerous and needs to be taken down."

"So you decided to take it down yourself then?" an adult voice asked. "Satomi-san, might ask where you learned the bakusai tenketsu"

"Ehh," Naiki said, surprised.

She took in the tall chinese man in front of her wearing the billowing white chinese robes and wearing glasses that looked thicker than Tsubaki's.

"My mother taught me," she said. "Why?"

"Do you think she'd mind if you took part in a little contest?" the man asked. "You see the rules say the contestant has to be female."

"She just destroyed my dojo and you're wanting her to compete for us?" Issei demanded.

"That wasn't a dojo, boy," the man said. "That was a shack that you and your friends had pounded into submission. In any case, Satomi-san, would your mother mind if you were to compete in a contest for our restaurant?"

"I could ask her," Naiki said. "What's the contest?"

"Martial arts takeout race," he said. "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Mousse Tsubaki, Issei's father."

****

Since taking the job with Mithril's Psyche Division, Ranma had mostly spent her time in her home office going over reports and matching them to the lists of exorcists, priests and demon hunters the mercenary group had identified in the area.

However, what they had to discuss this time was a bit more sensitive.

"How do we know there's a Whispered involved?" Ranma asked.

"It's very likely," Zhuge-san said. "The Intelligence division has tracked a number of purchases through various fronts that have been quietly transported to this location. The indication is that they either have a whispered captive or else they're going to be having one soon."

"From what I've heard," Ranma said. "Tactical usually does this sort of thing, why does it fall to us?"

"Because of the capabilities of the facility's staff," Zhuge said, distributing photos of a several similarly appearing girls engaged in a variety of paranatural abilities.

Ranma was considering the photos, frowning as the various girls seemed to remind her of something. She was distracted from her consideration by the ringing of her cell phone.

She stood up and checked the number, the Jindai office phone.

"Hello?" she said, picking up the phone. "Naiki? A competition, that might be a bit unf...wait, what was the name of the competition again?"

Bethany and Shen shared a look and arched an eyebrow as Ranma sighed expressively and shook her head.

"I'll be there in a little bit, Naiki, invite them in," Ranma said. "I've got to finish up here."

She closed the cell phone and slipped it back into her pocket.

"Sorry about that," she said. "Now, do you mind if we tap some of the tacticals that already know about us?"

"Who'd you have in mind?" Shen asked.

"The West Pacific's SRT," Ranma said. "Three specific members. Mao, Sagara, Weber."

Bethany nodded as she heard him and started looking up files.

"Sagara has been requested for action in Helmjastad for the same period our operation needs to run," Bethnay said. "And one of the other two will have to remain on guard with Kaname Chidori and your daughter."

"So my choice is Mao or Weber," Ranma said. "And whichever one I take with me is going to be guarding Eija and Kaname."

Ranma thought about it for a few moments.

"Mao," she said finally. "That should be enough to get in and out without trouble."

"You do realize that's going to leave Weber guarding the girls," Shen noted.

"Eija and Kaname know how to deal with him," Ranma said smirking. "And if he does something out of hand, then one of the two take him out of my hair for good."

****

Naiki sat at the warehouse with the visitors sitting across from her.

Well, Issei's father was sitting across from her. Issei was going over the practice area with a fine toothed comb and investigating all the weaponry and tools.

"If he goes into the library and messes with the tomes and scrolls," Naiki said, "I'm not responsible."

"There's some subtle magic to this place, isn't there?" Mousse asked.

"I think just a bit of feng shui to keep it unnoticed," Naiki said. "'Kaasan thinks that too many defenses attract trouble."

"The best defense is for no one to realize you're there," a voice said as Ranma entered the building.

Mousse stood up and turned around to bow to the woman entering the building.

"Satomi-san," he said. "I've heard a little bit about you."

Ranma bowed in response.

"You know," the red-head said. "I'd expect a man from the Amazon tribe to raise a child with a much less misogynist attitude."

Issei grimaced from his position.

"I'm not often around, unfortunately," Mousse returned. "And the boy's Japanese family is a bit old-fashioned."

"Amazon," Naiki said, blinking as she took in Issei and Mousse. "They don't look Greek."

"Chinese Amazons," Mousse said. "Which your mother should have told you something about, considering she's apparently taught you our secrets."

"Chinese..." Naiki asked.

"Danger list, number 4," Ranma said.

"Oh," Naiki said, blinking before she realized what that meant and stood up backing away from Mousse. "Oh!"

"You're not going into that crazy Chinese stuff, are you old man?" Issei asked as he walked into the living room with one of the norse battle axes slung over his shoulder.

"Tsubaki," Ranma said sharply. "Why are you taking that off the training area?"

Issei froze and looked over to see the red-head smiling at him.

"I'll put it back, Ma'am," he said quickly.

"I see you've already taught my son some manners," Mousse noted.

"Well, I'm not a shriveled up monkey," Ranma said. "But I can still whack a few heads when they need whacking. I have to say, I never would have pegged him for an Amazon, as weak as he is."

"Hey," Issei complained. "I'm one of the strongest martial artists in the area."

"Like I said, he has some opinated Japanese relatives," Mousse noted. "And I'm not around much."

"And whose fault is that?" Ranma asked.

"Satomi," Mousse said, emphasizing the name in amusement. "You don't know my situation, I'd ask you not to criticize my parenting. At the very least, I am not a panda."

"Oh hell," Naiki said. "You know each other."

Issei walked into the situation after replacing the axe.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"They're old friends," Naiki said glumly.

"Are not," both adults protested.

"We're former enemies!" Ranma explained.

"Your...mother, is one of the most infuriating beings alive, girl," Mousse added.

"Oh no," Issei said. "This is hell."

"No, Hell is a nice place," Naiki said. "This is terrible."

****

Deimosu was glad that he'd stopped in the convenience store for some bottled water before heading into that first town. The clerk had the TV running and the story of the lost girl with the family offering her a reward for her return.

At first he was hopeful of finding the girl's real family, but then the image of one of those dark-haired girls came on to the screen and he saw it for what it was, a way to pin him down and recover the girl.

Now he was faced with an extra problem.

He couldn't drop the girl off without worrying that she was going to end up back with whoever it was that wanted her, and he couldn't, shouldn't bring her with him into the sort of danger he was looking to go into.

He paid for the water and a notepad that Yaku had started doodling on, and quietly walked out of the store and then out of the town up into the hills outside the small village, thanking whatever power had insured people would be distracted by the summer festival that was apparently getting set up on the other edge of town.

"We're not going in to the town?" she asked, confused.

"Not yet," Deimosu said, looking the girl over in her laboratory greys and her ungroomed black hair. "People are looking for you."

"You mean the bad people?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah," Deimosu said. "So we've got to make you look different."

"How are you going to do that?" she asked.

"That's a problem," Deimosu admitted, frowning.

As he spoke, he looked past Yaku down into the yard of a house on the edge of town and watched one of the villagers hanging up laundry to dry in the wind.

Including a couple pieces of clothing for a little boy.

Looking between the laundry in the distance and the little girl jotting numbers and letters down on a notebook, Deimosu smirked.

****

An hour later, Deimosu was walking through town with Yaku beside him dressed in a t-shirt and pants and generally looking more like a little boy than a little girl given her somewhat untidy appearance. The ill-fitting nature of the clothing only added to that.

He turned quietly into the tiny internet cafe that even this little village had and sat at one of the computers, next to him, Yaku also sat down at a computer.

With Yaku to take care of, at least until he got out of Japan, he couldn't just swim across the Sea of Japan anymore. That meant looking up some ways across the ocean by boat or plane.

Yaku at his side was skimming through the programs on her computer and experimenting with the buttons.

Satisfied that she was occupied, he started trying to plod through his own limited computer literacy to look for ferries and rides across the sea to Korea or maybe China.

He glanced again at Yaku. She was doing less random typing now and seemed to have found the help index for the operating system.

No, definitely Korea, China wasn't a safe place to bring a kid to if he remembered his news right. If the war broke out again, whatever orphanage he brought her too could be overrun by circumstances.

South Korea, with support from the US army, was much safer.

He took an hour or so to find a few travel websites and plod through their information. Next to him, Yaku had found one of the cafe's copies of Starcraft and was working her way through the tutorial.

Jotting down several pieces of information over the next hour or two, he wasn't sure, Deimosu ignored the groans and curses of various other players around the cafe. Though he did occasionally glance curiously at Yaku as she seemed to be diving into the game.

The girl certainly seemed to pick up on things fast.

"Okay, we have to go," he said. "Or we're going to run out of money."

"Okay," Yaku said, taking the time to slowly close things down and shut down the computer station exactly according to the procedure she'd found in the help files.

"Did you have fun?" he asked.

"Give me something to burn," Yaku said in imitation of one of the firebats in the game.

It was evening as they walked out of the village, past the festival grounds. Deimosu half expected Yaku to ask to ask about heading into the celebration, but she only looked at it curiously.

"Of course," he thought to himself. "If she's been raised in a lab all her life she doesn't know what a festival is."

He paused at the edge of the festival's entrance, and shrugged.

It wasn't like he'd ever been to a Japanese festival either.

****

Sousuke watched to his side.

Eija was looking as cheerful as normal, but it was the sort of subdued cheer that she had in the hospital when he and Kyoko stopped by to visit her and most people moved straight on to Kaname's room.

Kaname looked like she was about to break something, probably a limb. She hadn't looked like that when he'd left to get food, so he doubted that it was actually something he'd done. As such, her only had a few ideas as to what may have made her so upset.

Mizuki looked similar to Kaname, but that was hardly unusual. Unlike Kaname, whose bad moods were usually easily traced to some manner of misunderstanding on his part, Mizuki was often raving mad without any sort of understandable source at all. As such, she was easily ignored.

Kyoko looked about the same as usual. The girl seemed able to handle almost any personality quirk without batting an eye. And yet she was able to tell when someone really did have ill intent. She was a very excellent judge of character it seemed.

Away from the girls and sitting on Sousuke's other side, Shinji was still sitting in something of an obvious pout. Their meeting with his father had somehow left being somewhat out of sorts somehow. Sousuke wasn't quite sure why.

If this were a normal situation, he'd ask for clarification on the situation from Kyoko, who was often the most patient in explaining to him the arcane and obscure practices of Tokyo high school life. Barring that, was Eija, who was just as patient, but often just about as lost as Sousuke was.

His next choice was usually Kaname. Kaname's explanations were often delivered at the end of a drill sergeant barrage, though usually that was because they usually came after something he'd done had gotten her into trouble. Very often she was right about what he had done wrong, but she wasn't always able to clearly explain just why he was wrong.

Finally would be Shinji, though, for someone that had lived his entire life in the relatively safe culture of a Tokyo kid he seemed remarkably limited on his understandings of the day to day practices of that culture. In fact, he seemed to care even less about them than Sousuke did, though granted that might be because he obviously didn't break the standards so...spectacularly...as Sousuke did.

Sousuke had heard the term "otaku" in reference to Shinji. Then again, he'd heard it reference to himself as well. Usually the term came with the word "military" before it. Given Shinji's very real expertise on military news and procedures, Sousuke was wondering if "otaku" was slang for "expert."

In this case, Sousuke was at something of a loss. Kyoko was sitting as pretty much all the way on the other side of all the girls away from him. Eija and Kaname were both already upset, as was Shinji, who hadn't witnessed whatever had upset the girls anyway.

As for Mizuki, Sousuke had long ago decided that he'd go to her for advice when the world made as much (little) sense as she did.

Left on his own, Sousuke was faced with two options: remain safely quiet and eat his food, or voice his questions about what was going on.

"Why is everybody so upset?" he asked. "Did something happen?"

"Oh, dry up and die, Sagara!" Mizuki and Kaname shouted at once, encouraging silence from everybody else.

Sousuke retreated back to eating...

Sousuke watched as the competition went on.

The tug of war was predictable. The Narashino pilots didn't seem very skilled in getting the best use out of their machines. However, they were not incompetent, so it was surprising that they lost so quickly.

Next came the relay, which included the little Scirocco running in its own lane.

Predictably, the little AS started off slower, and quickly found itself locked behind the larger mechas even as its unorthodox power source started to warm up.

"Perhaps as a secondary power source," Sousuke noted.

"I don't think there's anything really small enough for that," Shinji said. "But they've got the framework and basic systems, maybe someone will take an interest in this later and they can get the funds to develop it further."

"I'm still amazed that a group of civilians successfully managed to build such a machine," Sousuke noted. "With no funding. Over the course of a few months."

Quietly he wondered if the goddesses had done much of the work, but dismissed that. The engineers showed so much pride in the machine, they had probably refused any magical help, though one of the engineers was a goddess.

And then the Red Dragons pushed over the Narashino mech, forcing the scirocco to engage in a show of rather ungainly and frantic acrobatics to escape the crash.

Sousuke narrowed his eyes.

And the miniature AS, given a free lane picked up speed and was across the finish line in a blink.

Some back part of his mind continued the evaluation of the miniature AS, but the main part of his mind was now thoroughly evaluating the Red Dragon's machines and tactics and comparing them to what he knew of the rules of the competition.

By the time the ping pong competition started, he was certain of it.

The Red Dragons were breaking the established rules on power limits and tactics.

Quietly, he set down his bowl and stood up to excuse himself from the bleachers.

It was a few minutes later when an AS in giant apron swooped in to make a saving smash on a ping pong that any of the other kids noticed he had left.

"Isn't that the AS that was serving food earlier?" Kyoko asked.

"Hey anybody see where Sousuke went?" Shinji asked.

_Oh, he didn't_ Kaname thought as she looked toward the vacant seat.

_I hope he did, I think they're cheating,_ Eija noted. _They need to be taught a lesson._

_But he shouldn't be attracting attention like that!_ Kaname protested.

_As long as people don't know who he is,_ Eija said. _Does it really matter?_

As Sanzenin exited his AS to challenge the pilot that interferred with the match, Kaname watched as the other pilot exited wearing a ridiculous card-board costume that had been worn earlier by one of the people that ran a booth at the festival.

Her first impulse was to make a dash for the bottom of the stands and hurl her harisen with enough force to knock Sousuke silly for embarassing her.

The blue-haired Whispered had Eija to thank for stopping her and calming her down.

Right now, Sousuke was only embarassing himself and no one had yet any idea that she and Eija knew who he was.

Still, Kaname couldn't just stand around at the moment as Sousuke and that Sanzenin creep traded jibes and challenges.

Taking a deep breath she rolled her eyes and walked off towards the concession stand, trying to find something of a normal summer vacation. As she arrived, she noticed Belldandy also walking up to the stand.

Mercenaries, Arm Slaves, Martial Artists, Demons, Goddesses, Terrorists, Resonance, Ghosts.

Her life had recently turned upside down and dealing with it was aggravating.

In another circumstance, she might have been able to at least temporarily heap all the blame for that on Sousuke or the Satomis. However, there were a couple things wrong with that.

Eija's and her situation, the telepathic thing, was because of what she, Kaname, was. In fact, Eija had been in danger because of her.

The Gods and Demons both said that the personality mixing was even, but something in Kaname said that was only between two elements. No, the scariest part of the whole thing until Eija came back with goddess marks was the idea not that she was mixing with the other girl, but that she was slowly eating the other girl's mind.

Would it be the same with any telepath she connected with outside of Gods, Demons or other Whispered?

Was that what she was, some sort of psychic predator?

She had an image, for a brief moment, of someone out there with her abilities, hunting and "eating" the minds of other gifted people.

_Is something wrong?_ Eija asked her.

_No, no,_ Kaname said. _Everything is fine. How's Sergeant Justice doing?_

_He seems to be talking with Shinji's father,_ Eija noted. _Can you get me a soda._

_Fruit punch flavored, right,_ Kaname asked.

Carefully she pushed those thoughts back down, afraid that Eija might hear her deeper worries.

"What am I going to do?" she wondered.

"Pardon?" Belldandy asked, as Kaname walked up to her. "Oh, Kaname, I'm sorry, were you and Eija-chan having a discussion?"

"Oh no, no," Kaname said. "I was just talking to myself."

"Oh, I see," Belldandy responded with a pleasant smile.

Kaname watched as the goddess politely waited in line and requested her food, paying and bowing before walking away. She was just about the perfect image of a woman.

Not at all what she'd expect from a goddess.

She'd expect regal declarations, demands of worship.

She didn't expect humility.

It was her turn then and she purchased both her and Eija's sodas and started back to the stands, and was surprised to see Belldandy waiting patiently for her.

"Might I speak to you for a moment?" Belldandy asked.

"Umm, sure," Kaname said. "Is this important?"

"It might be," Belldandy said, moving aside and sitting lightly on the cement foundation of the stands.

Cautiously, Kaname moved to sit by her.

"You have a difficult time ahead of you," Belldandy said.

"Yeah," Kaname said. "I know, the whole network, Whispered thing."

"No, I was not discussing that," Belldandy said. "I'm confident from what I've seen of you that you will do well with that. Though, unfortunately, I fear it will be dangerous, even arduous, but not difficult."

"Then what are you talking about?" Kaname asked.

Belldandy looked out past the pillars of the stands they were sitting under to where Sousuke was talking to the Narashino unit's CO, still wearing the ridiculous cardboard AS costume. A little closer, Eija was watching Sousuke until she turned for a moment to wave at Kaname.

"How is your relationship with Sousuke-kun and Eija-chan?" Belldandy asked.

"Relationship?" Kaname asked, blushing. "I...don't know...we're just sort of friends...I mean Sousuke's always causing trouble and doing weird things. And Eija's...kind of distant sometimes."

She flinched as she realized the other girl had "heard" that just now. The Satomi girl was a bit too polite to interrupt the conversation, but that didn't change the fact that Kaname felt a bit of Eija's discomfort.

"I mean Sousuke gave us first aid kits when we was in the hospital," Kaname said. "Eija thought that was okay, but who does that?"

"Tell me," Belldandy instructed. "What is the purpose of a first kit?"

"To take care of someone who gets hurt," Kaname said as if that were obvious.

"So, what thoughts would be behind giving such a gift to someone," Belldandy asked.

"The thoughts behind it?" Kaname said, thinking about it momentarily.

_Umm, well..._ Eija started to say.

"And Eija does not need to give you help here I think," Belldandy noted as she looked over toward where the dark-haired girl was watching and shook her head.

"How did you know she was talking to me?" Kaname asked.

"I'm a goddess too," Belldandy reminded her. "I might not be able to listen in, but I can feel her. Now, think about it."

"Well, if you give someone a first aid kit," Kaname said. "You'd be...worried they were going to get hurt...and want to know they had something to take care of themselves?"

"Right," Belldandy said. "Sousuke and Eija live in a world where the ground can fall out from under you, literally. They haven't had the assurance of safety we have. Physical concerns are often more pressing than emotional ones, but the emotions are still there. Just expressed differently."

"I...never thought of it that way," Kaname said.

"And they likely have scars they haven't shown you yet," Belldandy noted. "Some they might not even be aware of. It will be difficult to understand and it will be difficult bear, but you will have to."

"You said we've grown up similarly, so how do you know this?" Kaname asked. "Keiichi doesn't strike me as the same as...that kind of person."

"No," Belldandy said. "But I've known many from the last war between Demons and Gods, some close...very close. Some that try a bit too hard to be 'normal'. You might wish to talk to Eija about whatever she overheard through your link."

"Right," Kaname said. "Probably be wanting her soda too."

Belldandy smiled as the teenager walked off and then started to move back toward the rest of her circle. She smiled as she saw Megumi and Chihiro checking over the AS as Keiichi described how it felt to pilot it. Off to the side, surprisingly, Urd had arrived and was watching the festivities.

"Oh, Urd," Belldandy said. "I thought you were staying home."

"Eh, I had nothing better to do," Urd said shrugging as Belldandy came up even with her. "And watching Skuld obsess over a machine is always entertaining."

With a quiet smile, Belldandy reached out to hug her older sister, surprising Urd tremendously.

"What's that for?" she asked, hesitantly.

"For being here," Belldandy said.


	16. Rest and Relaxation Part 2

Sanzenin frowned as he looked about for any sign of either the blue-haired girl or the heavenly girl from earlier, but he couldn't seem to find either.

There was the one girl, with the beautiful dark hair and red eyes, but despite how beautiful she was, he couldn't look at her without feeling a core of ice grow deep in the pits of his stomach that quickly spread to his limbs.

Well, he couldn't go the entire festival without at least one conquest on the field of love.

Putting on his most charming smile, he approached the pigtailed girl and her camera. Normally, he'd avoid such girls as this type as not mature enough. Something he'd decided upon sometime after his third restraining order.

Still, he had to have some sort of victory here.

He opened his mouth, sure of victory.

"My what a wonderful, youthful beauty you are," Sanzenin said, catching Kyoko's attention.

"Oh! Captain Sanzenin," the frenetic face of a blonde goblin leaped into his view. "I thought you were so awesome out there!"

And as the girl gripped his arm, he had a sudden urge to call the asylum and double check on an old partner's residential status.

Or at least to see if she had spawned any more of her particular subset of the human species before going to her little padded room.

Such women were so unappealing. Irritating little things with an "I want" attitude that made them something to tolerate rather than conquest.

"Excuse me," Sanzenin said. "I was going to speak to your..."

The sound of a camera clicking rang through his ears and he turned to look at the pig-tailed girl holding up a little pink camera.

His image caught with this clinging girl? Sanzenin felt the world begin to close in around him.

****

"Well, it did fairly well on the relay," Keiichi said. "Of course we couldn't compete in either the ping pong game or the tug of war because well, the AS just isn't tall enough."

"Looks like that's probably it then," Megumi said. "We've got memory leaks in the OS and a couple bugs to work out."

"Probably for the best," Chihiro agreed. "We got proof of concept and skill across when we won the relay. But I think that's about all we can do given the rush it took us to finish it."

"Yeah," Keiichi said. "We've got a couple of loose joints and welds already. We underestimated the stresses involved."

"Well, it isn't exactly like we had time for a normal run of tests like on the custom bikes Whirlwind normally puts out," Chihiro added. "Besides, we proved our point, time to pack up."

"Great news!" Skuld declared loudly. "We're in the joust!"

"What?!" three voices declared at once.

"Umm, they were going to keep us out of the joust to, so I convinced the event runner to let us in," Skuld said.

"How'd you do...nevermind, I'd rather not know," Keiichi said.

****

"It's not coming out, sir," one of several nervous soldiers said as they tried to clean off one of a number of phrases and sentences emblazoned about the office.

The eyes of the man in charge of the event twitched as he looked about the various messages.

"Meanie!"

"Stupid military dork!"

"Just where did she have the permanent marker anyway?" he wondered.

****

"Okay!" Chihiro said. "Megumi, start a reboot. Keiichi, Skuld, we're doing some spot welding! Move, we've got about fifteen minutes so don't start anything major."

****

"All right, ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer declared. "The moment we've all been waiting for, the final event of the Narashino AS competition."

"Hey, Kyoko, where's Mizuki?" Kaname asked.

"Well that AS pilot from before came by and I think that's the last I saw of her," Kyoko said. "I took a picture and...huh, it's gone. Hey, my memory card is gone."

****

"So you managed to erase the picture," Sanzenin said glummly to his new co-pilot.

"Kyoko doesn't have it any more," Mizuki said in a sing-song. "Now, how does this work?"

****

Sousuke looked over the alterations done to the Japanese AS's for the joust event and had to admit that the resultant machines came out looking rather bizarre.

Keiichi, dressed in a racer's crash suit walked up beside Sousuke and looked over the machines as well

"Are those ASs carrying each other on their shoulders or are the legs just ridiculously oversized?" he asked.

"To be honest," Sousuke said. "I'm not really sure. Are you still dressed for action. I would have thought you were done by now."

"Yeah," Keiichi said. "Well, turns out we're still in it."

"Your AS barely passes the knee of a normal T96," Sousuke said. "What tactics exactly are you planning to use to compete?"

"I generally just pray for a miracle in cases like these," Keiichi said. "Anyway, see you out there, and try not to step on me when my machine falls apart."

"At the very least," Sousuke said. "I shall endeavour to scrape you off the soles of my boot gently."

****

And so the teams took to the field and waited for the sound of the whistle.

As the event got started, the Narashino paratroopers faced off against the so-called Nerima Red Dragons.

"So what do you think our strategy is going to be?" the man sitting with him asked.

"Well," Sousuke said. "I was originally going to suggest taking their captain out of the loop first, but I'm not sure that's going to be necessary."

As the mercenary said this, he watched the Red-Dragon's captin AS seemingly do the can-can backwards towards their own side of the field.

"There may yet be some sort of strategy behind those unorthodox manuevers," Sousuke declared. "Keep an eye on him."

"Will do," the paratrooper's CO said in the seat in front of Sousuke.

****

"What are you doing?" Sanzenin declared. "The enemy is that way!"

"Oh, who cares about the enemy when I'm right here?" Mizuki asked.

Karma was unloading on Sanzenin.

Heavily.

****

"What the hell is the Captain doing?" one of the Nerima team asked. "In the middle of the match?"

"There's something in this unit you should never willingly give up," the other pilot in that machine said.

"What's that?" the first asked.

"Plausible deniability," the other noted.

****

Without Sanzenin to effectively coordinate the Red Dragon, Sousuke was finding it rather easy to set the Narashino unit against them. The Red Dragon unit was very skilled, he had to give them that, but whatever bizarre tactic the Captain had in mind for them didn't seem to be working out too well.

And of course they couldn't stand against his skills, even with the...unusual arrangement the T-96s had for this event.

Every unit that came near Sousuke's AS found the balloon dangling over its head popped in a simulation of defeat.

Of course, there was the Scirocco out there, which was proving to be rather difficult to pin down.

Keiichi Morisato was showing to be a brilliantly unpredictable pilot.

****

"What the hell was I thinking," Keiichi wondered as he jerked the controls aside again to hurl his AS in a machine and body punishing roll that the eight-foot frame wasn't quite designed to absorb.

"Actually," he decided. "I was thinking just fine. A little race, something to show off our designs. We're used to races. So what was Skuld thinking?"

"Wait...Skuld?" he thought before turning to the radio. "Skuld, what did you put on this thing?"

"What do you mean 'what did I put on this thing'?" Skuld asked, affronted. "Chihiro told me not to go off the plans. Megumi told me not to go off plans. YOU told me not to go off plans."

Hence why she was affronted.

"Yeah, so what did you put in anyway?" Keiichi asked.

There was silence over the radio broken by a background of several women talking to a fifteen year-old goddess.

"Erm, jump jets," Skuld said finally.

"Jump jets, like how?" Keiichi asked.

As he spoke, the AS's computers started pulling up a schematic of a typical piece of equipment built into the back of the torso.

He grimaced as he analyzed the simplified diagram.

Skuld's design was typically was very clever. Using the AS's power to turn a turbine and pull air at great speed and pressure through the top out the bottom.

The problem was that the design was also Skuld-typical in terms of power efficiency. It would just about drain the available power every time he used it, meaning that when he came down, he'd be a slug.

And there was the OTHER problem of Skuld-typical devices.

"Okay," he said. "I'm going to try it on ten percent thrust."

****

"Did that little AS just fly about fifteen meters straight up?" Sousuke's co-pilot asked.

"It appears so," Sousuke said. "Impressive."

****

Keiichi worked desperately at his cockpit controls to start to control his fall, hoping to have enough power to bring the machine to a gentle fall rather than a steel-snapping crash.

"Skuld! Where's the steering for these jets?" Keiichi asked over the radio.

****

"Umm, steering?" Skuld asked.

"Jump jets are short-term flight," Megumi said. "You did add maneuvering jets, didn't you?"

"Err," Skuld said, embarassed.

"All the brilliance of Edison and Tesla combined," Chihiro noted. "With the forethought of a monkey."

"Hey!" Skuld protested.

****

Grimacing, Keiichi directed his AS's torso a lot off and gave another short burst of air, sending him into the soft target of a Narashino balloon which cushioned him just long enough to give a more normal jump to the AS's shoulder and then further down to the ground.

He smirked as the balloon popped in his wake.

"Sorry, Sousuke," he said. "But we've got our own team here."

****

"Interesting," Sousuke said as he saw what he recognized as an accidental score for Keiichi.

Given what he knew about the man, the engineer would figure out what he had done soon enough.

But the successful kill wasn't all he noticed. The little AS was a little jerkier than had been at the start of the event. It was a symptom that Sousuke recognized from his own experiments in the programing of Arm Slave AIs.

The Scirocco had a memory leak.

That meant that it's reaction time would get more erratic as time went on, leaning toward an overall slow down.

Added to that, he was watching it over the course of the match and confirming that every time it did that unsteerable jump, that it came down almost as slow as a slug. The power limits of the Scirocco were telling yet again.

Unfortunately, he could see the structural flaws were also wearing thin.

"Okay, everybody avoid the Scirocco's area," Sousuke said. "Let's use it against the Red Dragon."

"That thing moves like a greased pig," the co-pilot said. "If it wants to engage us, it'll get to us."

"Affirmative," Sousuke said. "But I don't think that will be a problem."

Slowly, the Red Dragon was whittled down, lacking the command of its vaunted leader, and then there was just Narashino and a pest of flying miniature AS to deal with.

"Okay, now there's just the Scirocco," Sousuke said, smiling.

"Yeah, and it's a pain in the butt," the co-pilot noted. "Did civilians really build this thing?"

"Affirmative," Sousuke said. "But it has some definite weaknesses, aside from the fact that in a full battle with actual AS weaponry it would be easily outmatched. Key among those is that each of those jumps seems to use the bulk of its accumulated power. In the moments after it jumps, it is vulnerable."

****

Keiichi was surprised to have lasted this long as the Narashino units closed about him. He'd even been able to take out three balloons...though mostly by luck and accident.

He wasn't looking to keep up that trend.

In fact, he was more or less just playing keep away now and hoping for a draw.

A T96 lunged down at him and he pushed the jump jets to pull away from it, wincing as he heard the creaking of the frame about him. Gritting his teeth at the snail's crawl the depleted battery allowed him until his motion and ambient friction powered up the main device.

Which was why he'd been aiming his jumps away from positions with any other AS.

He hadn't realized someone was watching for one of those jumps yet.

Not until an AS seemingly appeared out of nowhere near his landing point and, before he could get up enough power to dodge away, his balloon was gone.

"And the winner is Narashino!" the announcers shouted.

Keiichi groaned in disappointment...until the scirocco's left arm fell off.

****

"Ah, we lost," Skuld whined. "That stupid Keiichi! I knew I should have been piloting it."

"We came in second, Skuld," Chihiro said. "Against teams of professionals, and we even have three 'kills' to our team name. That's not a loss given what we're working with."

"You realize," Megumi said. "You just invited defense contracts your way."

"Feh, I already quit a job working at making someone else's designs," Chihiro said. "At Whirlwind, we make stuff for people to enjoy. They want to see my designs, fine. But I'm sticking to my custom machines."

****

"Well, that was timely," Keiichi said outside the scirocco as he looked over where the joint had finally given out under all the stress.

"It is an impressive design," Sousuke said, wandering away from the celebration.

"You still beat it," Keiichi noted.

"I had an unfair advantage," Sousuke noted. "I asked you about its specifications before I knew I'd be a participant."

"That's true," Keiichi said. "Hey, what happened to the other team's captain?"

As Keiichi asked, Sanzenin ran by, clothes half torn as he was pursued by a very eager looking Mizuki.

"Get away from me girl!" Sanzenin shouted.

"Oh come on, we haven't finished playing GS yet!" the love-crazed blonde shouted. "Mr. GS pilot!!"

****

"I can't believe this thing is still running," Ranma said from the side of the starting line.

"Things may have calmed down a bit since your disappearance, Saotome," Mousse said. "Excuse me, Satomi. But still this neighborhood seems to live and breathe the martial arts."

Past them strung line after line of delivery girls on bikes, skates, running shoes. Each of them with a variety of delivery boxes.

"By the way," Ranma said. "It didn't take you long to figure out who I am. Used to be a time when you couldn't tell who a person was even if they told you."

"Seriously, Ranma," Mousse said. "A red-headed Japanese woman visits the Tendo dojo and you don't expect the neighbors to take notice? And then Kuno arrested for kidnapping."

Ranma grimaced at that reminder.

"I will admit," Mousse said. "I didn't expect it to really be you, but your daughter there. The yamasenken is assimilated into the most basic of her movements. Any martial artist who's seen it in action will know it in her. How'd you teach it to her?"

"I was the guardian of the senken after beating Ryuu," Ranma said. "You don't seriously think I didn't read the scrolls before burying them. How have you seen it?"

"Really, you had to be watching the news whereever you ended up," Mousse noted. "It's been war in this part of the world, just outside Japan's doors, and sealed techniques come out for war. I happen to know the other three practioners. Did you teach all your children."

"To some extent," Ranma said. "But some took to the arts better than the others."

"So I guess your life hasn't been calm either," Mousse noted.

"You could say that..." Ranma started to say before she noticed something among the competitors. "Is that a battle spatula?"

The competitor in question was a tall young woman, late teens, early twenties. He had a cocky expression on her face as she carried her takeout box and wielded her battle-spatula easily.

"Did they place an entry this year?" Mousse wondered. "They don't even live here anymore."

Scanning the crowd along the other side of the starting line then, Ranma saw them, older but unmistakable as they pushed forward to front of the spectators.

She was wearing her own chef's uniform and battle spatula, probably to speak of her support of her competitor. The man next to her was dressed in a kimono and still successfully managing to seem female to the unwitting onlookers.

Of course, Ranma knew him very well, so she wasn't fooled.

"Ukyou," he said. "And Konatsu. Okay, that must be a student not a child, because they would have had to have him before I left otherwise."

****

"Well," Ukyou said smirking. "This is probably as good a way to announce the re-opening of Ucchan's original location as any."

She crossed her arms and looked over the crowd of participants.

There didn't look to be anybody of a caliber to compete with her student out there. The race probably hadn't had someone like Shampoo, Ranma or her for a long while.

Kouta was as well trained as she could make the girl. Trained in all the techniques she'd learned as a kid or helping out keeping the Chinese chaos out of Japan like most of the rest of the Nerima martial artists.

It really wasn't very fair to the other participants.

"Ukyou," Konatsu said respectfully.

He hadn't called her "sama" since they were teenagers, but he still tended to treat her with something more than respect.

"Yeah," Ukyou asked.

Konatsu pointed into the competitors at a green-haired girl with red facial tattoos performing some stretches before the race. The girl's takeout box was in one hand, the other, on her head, or where-ever else it was most out of the way without actually letting go of it.

Beside the girl was a familiar looking young man.

"Oh, that could be trouble," Ukyou said, narrowing her eyes. "That guy standing near her is Issei Tsubaki, Mousse's kid. I wasn't aware the Tsubaki family had a branch out here."

"But that's not Niechezu Wu Shu, Hidden Weapons or Tsubaki Karate," Konatsu said.

Ukyou watched as the green-haired girl took a familiar variation of the crane stance before popping her shoulders and settling down.

"No, that's Saotome-Ryu," Ukyou said. "And that doesn't look like one of Ryuu or Akane's students."

"The rumors," Konatsu said as they turned to look toward the spectators.

Ukyou joined the visual search and soon enough saw the red-head across the race path looking in her direction and standing next to Mousse.

"Ranchan," Ukyou said.

****

"You'd better be prepared, Satomi," Issei said grimmly. "I'll not have you embarassing my family by some sort of reckless of act of idiocy."

"You guys are the ones that came to me, remember?" Naiki said. "This whole thing certainly isn't my idea."

"I wouldn't worry about it anyway," a new voice said as a figure walked over to where Issei and Naiki were standing. "I'm going to be winning this race, and that's all there is to it, sugar."

Naiki turned to look over toward the speaker, a slender girl, who she almost took to be a guy at first, actually, wearing the traditional outfit of a Japanese chef and carrying what looked to be a giant spatula tied to her back.

"And who might you be," Issei demanded with narrowed eyes.

"I'm Kouta Haruki," she answered smirking. "Student to Ukyou and Konatsu Kuonji owner of the Ucchans brand okonomiyaki restraunts. I didn't think there were any Tsubaki girls that actually studied the martial arts."

"Well, I'm not a Tsubaki," Naiki said, standing straight. "I'm Naiki Satomi, student of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts and Mistress of the Yamasenken."

Kouta blinked as Naiki gave her introduction. The green-haired girl had just given the name of a school run by a friend of her teachers. Surely, Ukyou-Sensei or Konatsu-Sensei would have said something.

"Satomi or Saotome?" the girl asked.

"Satomi," Naiki said. She knew that her mother was born with the other name, but she hadn't changed over to it yet, so she wasn't gonna claim it yet.

"I thought your school's teachers were friends of mine," Kouta said suspiciously. "Do friends enter against each other secretly?"

"Ehh," Naiki said, blinking. "My mother taught me. Ranma Satomi."

"Whatever," she said. "It doesn't matter. There's more to Takeout Martial Arts than beating your opponent. A straight martial style can't hope to understand the difficulties involved in this sort of competition."

"You mean like not spilling the contents of the boxes?" Naiki asked.

"Easier said than done, sugar," Kouta noted.

"Well, I've certainly got one thing up my sleeves," Naiki said smirking.

"And what might that me?" Issei asked questionably.

"Hey, I'm representing your family here," Naiki said. "And in any case, that one thing is: a violent, tumultuous or overwhelming flow."

As she spoke the green-haired girl pointed to the claw shaped marks on her forehead with a wide fanged smile.

Both Issei and Kouta stared at the snickering girl, trying to fathom just what she was talking about and then looked at each other.

"Don't ask me," Issei said. "My father asked her to compete for us."

****

Mara was accustomed to being sneaky, so it was only a matter of coincidence that she was watching the proceedings from atop a telephone pole overlooking the scene.

It wasn't the hiding place here that it was in Belldandy's neighborhood, too many residents were used to seeing people up that high normally.

Still, it was somewhat concealing since it didn't mark her as to far out of the ordinary.

Of course, Ranma found her pretty quickly, Mara noted as she flinched with the red-head's first eye contact.

"I'm a first class demoness, she's a human chi-master," Mara noted. "And I'm afraid of her, why?"

In any case, a martial artists race definitely fell into Naiki's realm of influence. It would be interesting to see how the girl handled this.

****

"I'm guessing Naiki told her," Ranma muttered as she identified Mara.

"What's that Sao..Satomi?" Mousse asked.

"One of Naiki's....other teachers is here too," Ranma said, tapping her fingers.

"Oh? You don't sound approving," Mousse said. "I'd never figure you as one to disapprove of further martial study."

"It's not martial arts study," Ranma noted. "Even then it's less about the study and more about the recruitment."

Mousse was about to ask for clarification when he saw something else that attracted his attention.

"Oh wonderful," Mousse noted.

Ranma turned away from where she was watching Mara and looked into the crowd to see the approach of a small group of rather unhappy looking people.

One of them, a Japanese woman dressed in more or less modern clothing and looking in a not-so casual casual manner toward Ranma. The red-head recognized the look from memory well enough: caution and jealousy.

"What is the meaning of this debacle," one of the many old men of the group demanded as they came up to Ranma and Mousse.

"They followed me here," the woman said, in exasperation. "Who's your friend?"

One of the old men looked toward Ranma and took in the red-hair. The chi-master sighed as she knew what was coming.

"I'm also curious why you've chosen to parade this ainu slut in front of our grand-daughter," he said.

Ranma turned around to face them, expression dangerously neutral.

"I'm Ranma Satomi," she said politely to the woman. "Mousse and I used to try to kill each other a few years ago, so forgive me if I want to be around when he's asking one of my kids for favors."

The relief flooded through the woman's face as she bowed in response.

"Oh, no problem at all," the woman said bowing. "Wait, I've heard that name before. Weren't you and..." she paused as she looked between Mousse and Ranma.

"Yeah," Ranma said. "Our fight was over a woman we both knew. So don't worry about any under-the-table footsy. I outgrew pretending to be attracted to men ages ago."

The shocked and pale expressions on the people in the little group were more than payback enough for Ranma's purposes. Especially as one of the old men wheezed at the edge of an anxiety attack. He probably thought it was a heart attack, the bastard.

"We won't stand for this!" the old man with more breath in his lungs declared. "Get the spawn of this...abomination out of there now and end this mockery."

"Too late," Ranma noted cheerily.

"Why is that?" the old man demanded.

The answer came as the gunshot starting the race was heard and a cacophony of martial artists roared down the street.

"Satomi," Mousse said flatly. "I see you've persisted in finding ways of making matters worse."

"Only when the situation calls for it," Ranma noted as she saw Issei stop working in their direction and turn back the other way upon spotting his relatives. "Smart boy there."

****

Naiki could feel it in the crowds, something familiar and new. It was like how she could sense chi and mana and pishogue now. When she walked past the flood canals or over a river, she could feel the potential for flood.

Right now, with so many martial artists waiting for the race to begin, that new sense was tingling like crazy.

And then the shot rang out.

And the potential became reality as she and dozens of other martial artists surged forward.

It was almost a visible energy.

An energy she could see reacting to her thoughts and intention.

****

Mara watched as the race started.

"Directly manipulating your realm isn't like casting a spell," she said to herself. "You're basically making a spell on the fly. Let's see what you can get by instinct."

****

Kouta smirked as she pulled up beside the green-haired girl and started to swing her spatula.

The Satomi girl caught the move at the last moment and flipped up into an impossibly graceful flip over the strike.

Grimacing Kouta had to settle for forcing the girl further back into the crowd.

****

Naiki caught her breath in an immense sense of relief. Defense was so not her strong point and Kouta had just reminded her of that.

Usually, Naiki was rather lax on her guards and relied on her resilience to carry her through the attacks she failed to avoid. At the moment, however, she had to take care of something not quite as resilient as her.

Well, the best way to keep attacks from coming her way, was to keep people too busy to fight her.

Smirking, Naiki extended her hands out to make the gestures that triggered her powers.

"By the command of the demon of torrent!" she intoned. "Let the torrent swallow my foes and drive them from my path!"

The incantation came out of her almost instinctively with only a little stuttering hesitance to find the right words to describe her will.

And then the spell was crafted, completed and cast.

Naiki blinked as there seemed to be no immediate effect.

"Well, that didn't work," she noted. "I guess it's old fashioned way then."

****

Several yards behind Naiki, a martial artist on a bike slashed blazingly past a line of potted plants avoiding the attacks of a racer on a skateboard.

One of the potted plants, caught up in the wake of the biker, was pulled forward by the rushing air and smacked dead into the back of the head of one of the participants.

Elsewhere, as several people jumped over a display of tires, one of the large, round rubber objects started to pull forward, slam into another part of the display and upset a number of other tires, which rolled forward.

Several of the less aware martial artists found themselves taken by surprise and overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of these and other objects into the raceway.

Whether the race was uphill or downhill, the objects seemed to be pulled along with the racers. Getting kicked out of the way, rediverted, tripped over, hit by other objects or further coincidences.

****

"Oh, that's...interesting," Mara said as she hopped along to follow the race.

****

Naiki pulled her delivery box away as Kouta launched out a miniature shuriken, and twitched as she had to again protect the box from one of the other girl's strikes.

The girl wasn't giving her an opening to get a shot in and Naiki wasn't good enough on defense to force one while she had the box to protect.

Neither noticed Kouta's spatula shuriken slice through the rope on an awning, knocking several watermelons forward into street, where they slammed into a biker, who veered off course.

She lost a wheel and was suddenly trying to just control her newly one-wheeled vehcile as her delivery box splattered and joined the growing numbers of objects amongst the racers.

Naiki and Kouta meanwhile were mostly focused on each other.

At least until the cardboard box attacked Kouta.

Naiki blinked in confusion and then smirked as she took advantage of the distraction.

Kouta desperately held her box out safe as she swung the spatula down to divert the assaulting box and then had to dodge aside from Naiki's attack, giving the demoness space to dash ahead and put some distance ahead of the rest of the race.

"Damn it, Satomi!" she called out. "I'm not letting you win!"

Naiki smirked and looked back over her shoulder to make a comment.

Kouta's first reaction to see the choked expression on Naiki's face as the girl turned around was confusion, followed swiftly by concern as a rubber tire passed her up.

Looking over her own shoulder she looked back to see a horde of apparently animate objects mixed in among martial artists. In and among all the individual duels, there were people dodging tree branches, boxes, tires, other participants, skateboards and bikes that had escaped their riders and various other things.

It was like a tidal wave of debris.

****

Ranma sighed and smacked her palm into her face.

"What the hell is going on?" Mousse demanded, turning to look at Ranma. "Why is it when you're around chaos seems to follow?"

****

Tessa grimaced as she considered the paper in front of her.

"Captain Teletha Testarossa, you are to prepare for your biannual physical fitness exam to be taken two weeks from the sending of this memo."

Looking up from the print out, she took in the gym in front of her and the various machines present on Meridia Island.

She'd much rather be working on the Whisper of Souls. Heck, at this point she'd rather be attending to the base paperwork.

"How to start..." she wondered hesitantly.

Tessa could have asked the base's physical trainer, but a rising sense of pride kept the young captain from doing so. She hated being clumsy and she especially hated being clumsy in front of her men. So she certainly didn't want to go to one of them and say "can you help me not be clumsy for my physical fitness exam?"

Which was why she was glad to have access to a very physically oriented person with just the option of opening a door in the back of her mind.

Even here, she hated to admit that she needed some advice, but at least no one could listen in on her asking Naiki.

_Naiki?_ she thought, pulling down the barrier between her thoughts and the ramble of her mental roommate. _I was wondering if I could have some..._

_Ahh! Cow!_ Naiki's thoughts snapped out.

_Cow? I am certainly not a..._

_Oh, sorry, not you, the statue,_ Naiki responded.

_Statue? What do you...?_

_Gah, another cow!_

_What are..._

_No wait, that was the same one._

_Naiki! Focus! What are you talking about?_

_Martial arts race,_ Naiki responded sharply. _Tried to make a spell. Kinda busy dodging...DEBRIS!!!_

****

Ranma frowned as she watched her daughter run out past sight. She felt the familiar tingle of magic, black magic of course, that had happened just prior to the girl getting out of sight.

As coincidental debris started to clutter the track, already becoming a problem before the racers got out of view around the first turn, Ranma started to figure out what her daughter had done.

She shook her head and sighed.

Still, it wasn't likely to do any more or less damage than anything else a martial artist down there might trigger.

Ranma glanced over to where the elder Tsubaki and the other old man were glowering off to the side, disdaining involving themselves with such people as Ranma and shrugged as she turned toward the others.

"So, anybody know where the finish line to this is?" Ranma asked. "It's not the Kunos again is it?"

"Considering Tatewaki Kuno is still in jail for recent events," Mousse noted. "And no one knows where Kodachi Kuno is, I doubt it."

"That's lucky," Ranma noted.

"I think we'll find a view this way," Mousse noted. "Go to high ground, we should be able to find a point to watch the race as a whole."

He pointed down a side road leading up to some of the hills that would probably give them a view down into the race way.

"All right, let's go," Ranma said. "Anyway, I didn't introduce myself well enough. I'm Ranma Satomi. I'm guessing you're the kid's mother?"

"Naoko Tsubaki," the woman said. "I hope Issei wasn't too rude."

"Nah," Ranma said. "I've dealt with worse. He's mostly just a bunch of bark. Those old farts over there are the real thing. I'm guessing either you're the generation to rebel or your parents were?"

"Why do you say that?" Naoko asked.

"Because something around sixteen and nine months ago, you made him" Ranma said, pointing out with her finger towards Issei and then moving toward Mousse. "With him. And that's not the sort of thing that happens when you play by their rules over there."

"Are you always this...blunt?" the woman asked with a bit of a frown.

"Ranchan doesn't do subtle," a new voice said.

Ranma turned to see two approaching figures.

"Wondered when you'd come over here," Ranma said.

"Ranma-sama," Konatsu said. "I'm glad to see you alive. Though I didn't expect to see you so..."

"Yes?" Ranma asked.

"Red," Konatsu tried experimentally.

"Not much choice until recently," Ranma noted.

"Who's your student?" Ukyou asked, nodding out toward the raceway.

"One of my children," Ranma said.

"Chil..." Ukyou started to say in surprise. "You're the...mother?"

"What sort of question is that?" Naoko asked. "Do you think she could be the father?"

Ranma turned toward the woman momentarily before looking to Mousse.

"She has a curse similar to mine," the Amazon man said. "Only she changed gender."

"So, wait," Naoko said. "When you were talking about liking women before, it's because you're male under that body?"

"Ehh," Ranma said shrugging. "I have trouble seperating what makes someone male and someone else female outside of body parts."

****

Naiki huddled around her delivery box as she ducked under a rounded, decorative stone went flying over her head, as projected by an over-sized spatula. This was followed by a potted plant that the green-haired fighter reduced to powder as it approached her.

Grimacing, Naiki saw another opening in the other fighter's defenses, but her continued defensive stance left her unable to actually make use of it. She had to waste all her effort on a combination of dodging attacks and moving forward as well keeping from getting lost.

Which meant she couldn't shake this stubborn competitor.

"So, Satomi," Kouta shouted from at her side, "why is it none of this crap is harassing you?"

As she spoke she hurled a trio of shuriken spatulas. One bounced off of Naiki's cheek and the other two slashed outward and into a rope just past the two runners, releasing a roll of landscaping ceramic columns out into the raceway.

Those columns eventually found there way in Kouta's path, who dodged the first and kicked the second upright, wedging her foot behidn it so the third shattered into the second. Fragments of the ceramics flew outward in a spray of shrapnel mostly directed toawards Naiki as Kouta kicked out the disintegrating column towards her opponent.

All while keeping her own delivery secure and safe.

_I'm guessing your 'spell' is causing the debris?_

"What do you mean it's not coming at me?" Naiki asked back. "What was all that just now?"

_Yeah._

"That's coming from me, Jackass!" Kouta snapped, proving that Ukyou had taught her more than just how to fight and cook.

Behind them, as racers dropped off, or were dropped, the wave of debris lessened somewhat, though a fair collection of objects simply latched onto the next enspelled person in line, which was quickly becoming Kouta.

Giving her ample ammunition against Naiki.

"One thing I know for certain," Naiki grumbled as she dodged again.

****

"Defensive drills," Ranma noted a few minutes after reaching an overlook that had view of the race.

"How did you manage to teach someone that makes Ryouga look untouchable," Ukyou asked. "That's like getting vinegar out of a cow."

Ranma sighed and shook her head.

"Mousse, Naoko-san, Ukyou, Konatsu," Ranma said. "Think I can borrow your students to teach mine?"

"I'm assuming, given your training history, this is going to involve much humiliation of your daughter?" Mousse noted.

"Probably," Ranma noted grimly.

"I don't think Issei would mind," the Chinese warrior said, smirking as he turned to look at his long-time lover. "Would you?"

"As long as he's not late for work," Naoko said.

"I'm thinking Kouta's getting a head start on that, actually," Konatsu noted.

****

_Can you go through the steps of designing the spell again?_ Tessa thought, sneaking to the side of the gym as she took this opportunity to forestall her own problem.

_Not...that actually cut me!...right...don't spill! don't! don't!...now!_ was Naiki's sliced up response.

"Well, they both seem to be making good time now," Naoko noted as she looked from the speck that was Naiki hopping along rooftops, to the clatter of debris that was the demon-cursed Kouta.

_Do you have to stay to a specific route for this race?_ Tessa asked?

Naiki took a blow on her back that she couldn't completely dodge and grimaced.

_I don't think so,_ Naiki said. _Nothing was said..._

_Fall back,_ Tessa suggested.

_What?_ Naiki asked.

_Fall back,_ she repeated. _Act like you're giving up and take an alternate route. Leave her with your spell._

Naiki's face scrunched up in confusion as she "listened" to the plan.

"You're wide open, Satomi," Kouta shouted.

As the okonomiyaki martial artist swung the huge spatula forward, Naiki ducked down to the ground and stopped cold, letting Kouta flash right past her.

The chef blinked in confusion herself for a momment, and then shrugged as she had to avoid another piece of debris.

"Giving up on the fun already, sugar?" she asked with a smirk before turning all her attention on moving forward despite the debris.

Behind the other martial artist, Naiki waited for Kouta to pass ahead for a minute or two before leaping off in another direction at driving speed, now free of having to protect her cargo.

****

"Is your kid a pk?" Ukyou asked, frowning as she watched the debris harass her student.

"That's a way to put it," Ranma said. "So what's the last deal on this race?"

"What are you talking about?" Ukyou asked.

"The last time Sao...Satomi was involved," Mouse noted, "the goal was unaware that he was the goal and they had to trick him into eating it."

"The fact that he was Kuno didn't help," Ranma muttered.

Ukyou shivered.

"Perhaps some research into the history of this event would have been wise," Konatsu noted.

"I think the surprises will be minimal," Mousse noted. "There's a Tendo on the judge panels."

"Yeah, I saw that, but I didn't recognize the given name," Ukyou said. "I figured it was a mistake."

"No, I confirmed it with Kasumi," Mousse said. "The woman is one of her sisters."

"Wait," Ranma said. "Akane Saotome, Nabiki Hibiki, Kasumi Ono. So who's...."

Ranma groaned and slapped a hand to her face.

"Kurumi?" she asked glumly.

"Oh, you know of her as well?" Mousse asked.

****

Naiki and Kouta stopped cold and stared at each other as both became aware of each other.

In that instant, her motion stopped, the spell that was depending on that motion came to a close and the martial-chef was pelted only one more time with assorted debris.

Both martial artists looked across at each other and then toward the building that held their goal.

Somewhere, a guitar played Morricone's masterpiece...

...and both girls zipped across the street toward the house...

"Hold there!" a voice called out.

...and both girls stopped dead in front of a woman wearing a judge's sash.

"First thing first," she said. "Let's make sure your meals are intact."

Naiki and Kouta turned to stare at each other suspiciously as each held their delivery box to the side and opened it up well away from their opponent.

****

"You mean the mystery food bandit from when we were young?" Mousse said.

"The one that ate so fast we couldn't even get a clear look?" Ukyou added.

Konatsu simply shivered.

"Yes," Ranma said dramatically. "By now, it is already too late."

****

"All right, you'r both disqualified," the woman said, smirking as she licked her lips.

"What...?" Naiki said, blinking and looking into her delivery box.

"You...you...JACKASS!" Kouta demanded.

"What kind of race requires you to disqualify yourself?!" Naiki protested.

"Did anybody at the finish line tell you there'd be a judge to check your delivery

BEFORE you handed it off?" the woman scoffed. "You need to be prepared to look for deception as well as assault when you're carrying valuables."

"What valuables, this is takeout?!" Naiki protested.

"Speak for yourself," Kouta protested. "Ucchan's Okonomiyaki is a masterpiece not to be stolen by random fake judges!"


	17. Rest and Relaxation Part 3

"Hello there, young man," the barker said as he jumped out in front of Deimosu and Yaku. "Wouldn't you want to try you hand at the ring toss, see if you can win a toy for your little brother here?"

"Bro…" Yaku started to say inquisitively before Deimosu gestured for her to quiet down.

Deimosu felt more than a little unclean as he took in the artery clogging cholesterol that was embodied in the weasely man's smile, but the point of this whole distraction was to give the little girl he was now bringing to Korea with him a bit of normalcy.

"What do you think?" Deimosu asked. "Do you want to try?"

"How do you play?" Yaku asked.

"Well that's simple, my boy," the barker said, snatching up some brightly colored rings.

"Boy?" Yaku asked, but she was being ignored now.

"You take these rings here and you throw them out there onto those bottles," the barker explained. "The farther away the bottles and the smaller the rings, the more points you get. The more points you have at the end of a try, the better a prize you can get. But you have to get all your points in one try."

He gestured to the side where a number of toys, souvenirs and stuffed animals were displayed.

"You get five rings per try," the barker continued. "You can choose the rings, but you only get five and each try costs a little bit more."

"Small rings are more points?" Yaku asked, grabbing some from that pile.

"But harder to get to the target," the barker explained.

"Can I try twice?" the little girl asked Deimosu.

"Yeah, sure," he said. "I think I have enough for that."

Nodding firmly as Deimosu paid the barker, Yaku collected her ten rings for her two tries and looked across to note the point values of different toys and other prizes, eyeing a large stuffed dinosaur. Then she looked to the point value legend for the game and made her choices.

Deimosu was rather neutral to the game until Yaku started throwing. The girl had some, obviously undeveloped, agility, but that wasn't what caught his eye. Nope, it was the curious off-balance wobble the rings had as they flew through the air. Each one that Yaku threw only made him more and more certain.

The rings were unevenly weighted.

In the end, only two of the girl's rings landed around a bottle, and those were each on different "tries" as the barker was quick to point out.

The disappointed look on the girl's face as she collected the two pieces of candy she could claim as prizes was something Deimosu had expected to see. She wasn't trained, so there was no call to expect she'd succeed at the game. If it had been a fair game, Deimosu would have given her a third try and some advice.

It hadn't been a fair game.

"Let me have a try," Deimosu said with a smirk as he handed over the cost for another game and reached out to grab five of the smallest rings, ignoring the barker's crooked smile.

He shook the ring out and felt something inside the ring shifting. The rings weren't just poorly weighted, there was something inside that could slide around making the balance of the ring change in mid flight.

That made things a bit interesting, and he was briefly appreciative for every sack of flour, bag of coins and crate of potatoes that had ever been launched at or by him in every Jackie Chan inspired lunatic training session his mother had every put him through to deal with debris or improvise a weapon.

"Are you just going to spin them around or..."

There was a small cracking sound.

There was also the matter of the amaguriken.

"…throw them?" the barker finished, wondering just what that sound had been.

"I already did," Deimosu said, pointing with a smirk on his face.

The barker grimaced in confusion and turned to look out at the bottles and noticed five rings all around the absolute furthest, highest point bottle, still spinning and even seeming to smoke a little.

The man's jaw dropped to the floor.

"So what does that get us?" Deimosu asked.

****

"Excuse me," Yonjuu said irritably to the chef handing them their shiskabob. "What are you looking at?"

"Oh, excuse me, miss," the man said quickly as the apparent teenager caught him staring at her ample bosom. "Here's your food."

"Why does everybody stare at my chest like that?" Yonjuu asked as she stepped away from the line. "Isn't it rude to remind people of their flaws?"

"It's just ignorance," Nimu noted calmly as she chewed on a piece of beef marinated in honey. "They don't mean anything by it, Yonjuu."

"Nimu-ne-san," Yonjuu said in a conspiratorial whisper as Sanya was placing her order. "I saw an article in a medical magazine recently. Did you know that there's a surgery that you can have to make your chest smaller?"

"Surgery?" Nimu said in surprise. "Something so drastic, I'm sure there are plenty of people that could…appreciate…your situation."

She gestured weakly toward Yonjuu's peaks as compared to her elegant and efficient chest. Though, Nimu had to admit, that she wouldn't mind having Sanya's chest, the girl was almost the epitome of slender grace and sublime beauty.

"Oh please," Yonjuu said. "You've seen it to, the only pictures of big-breasted women belong to semi-mindless harlots that anyone in their right mind would avoid. I don't need to be comforted in my deformity."

"You are not deformed," Nimu sighed, shaking her head. "You're just an…acquired taste."

"Hey, a strength test," Sanya noted in excitement.

The youngest of the three cut off any further discussion of Yonjuu's problems by pointing to an elaborate rig with the traditional hammer and a weight meant to be flung by the contestant as high as possible.

"You don't need to be testing your strength," Nimu said, rolling her eyes.

"You don't want to be trying that rig anyway," the chef said. "Tokijo is a cheat, don't know quite how, but he's definitely a cheat. He lets a few win here and there, but most people fall suspiciously short."

Nimu sighed as Sanya smiled widely, eyes glittering like twin polished onyx stones.

"All right," she said. "This is a chance for Sanya San, Pillar of Strength of the San batch to demonstrate to all comers the strength that is hers! Ohhh-hohohohoho!"

And off she went, marching up to the line for the hammer.

"Well, at least we're blending in to the other festival goers," Yonjuu noted with a sigh.

"A San with a chance to show off doesn't blend," Nimu noted shaking her head as she followed the younger girl. "They scream like a siren."

"And when she does that she sounds a good deal too much like Mo…" Yonjuu started to agree.

"Don't call her that," Nimu growled

"She can't hear us out here," Yonjuu protested.

"It's not a matter of fear," Nimu responded firmly. "It's a matter of the respect she deserves."

Yonjuu shrugged the matter aside as they proceeded to move to the front of the group of spectators as their sister came to the front of the line.

"What's this then?" the barker asked as the short, slender Sanya walked up to where he held the hammer. "Uh, little girl, this probably isn't the best game for you."

He spoke with a dismissive laugh as he gestured at her.

"Please," Sanya said with her own air of derision. "I so rarely have a chance to truly demonstrate the power in my hands and I've been told your contest here is a truly difficult challenge."

"Listen, girl," the man said with a snicker. "I can take your money, but you're what twelve years old and eighty pounds soaking wet?"

"I am fifteen, physically," Sanya protested. "And I'll have you know I weight ninety six pounds! Now, please hand me the hammer and step out of the way."

Shaking his head in amused disbelief, the man heaved the hammer up to his shoulder as the girl handed him the money for her try at a swing. Pocketing that, he took the hammer in both hands, rolling his eyes as she reached out with one hand, waiting for the extra-heavy hammer to drag her to the floor with a cutely surprised expression.

Only the girl took it in hand easily and swung it about like a child with a butterfly net.

"Ooo, this is sturdier than I thought it'd be," she said in satisfaction.

That said, Sanya barely noticed the shocked expression on Tokijo's face as she walked to the rig, playing with the forty-pound hammer like a baton-twirler. Swallowing he cricked his neck and surreptitiously fingered the remote in his pocket. As the girl eyed the target, he turned up the power on the electromagnetic in the base of the rig to the maximum level.

There was no way that that slip of a girl could defeat two tons of electromagnetic force pulling down the ball.

No little freak of a girl was going to make a fool of him.

"Do you smell ozone?" Yonjuu asked Nimu.

The much less sensory adept young woman turned to her younger sister with an arched eyebrow.

"Oh, right," Yonjuu said as a flash of blonde hair passed the sizeable crowed behind them. "You don't smell things like I do."

"All right," Sanya declared loudly to the audience. "Now you shall see why I am known as my sisters' pillar of strength. Ohhh-hohohohohohoho!!!"

And, flipping back her long and unbound black hair, the girl lifted the hammer with a wild expression and then swung it downward with enough force to crater into the stone beneath the rig.

To Tokijo's eternal shock, the metal marker not only lifted up from the magnet that should have been holding it firm, it rocketed up into the evening air a good twenty feet, only to come down and be caught by the fifteen year old girl that had just demolished his rig.

"Well, not so challenging after all," Sanya said. "Ho, ho ho."

That said she handed off the hammer to the shell-shocked barker and ignored it as the weight of the hammer carried him sprawling to the ground, while she walked back to join her sisters, cracking her knuckles as she did so.

"Mmm, that felt good," she said.

"Are we done with the random destruction for now then?" Nimu asked.

****

Yaku sat on a park bench, holding tightly to the large stuffed shark Deimosu had given to her. She was staring at a giant glass jar while Deimosu was getting them some drinks.

There were a lot of people looking all around the glass jar, with little notepads in hand, or just figuring in the dirt or their heads. Every so often someone would walk off to the side and write down a number in a book and take a ticket in return.

As she watched it, she held up her fingers and closed one eye. More than a few processes had been accelerated in her, some more than others. At least one of those left her hearing a voice occasionally. She shouldn't have been hearing it yet, not until her body and brain were more mature, but she hearing it.

The voice taught her things.

Words sometimes, but mostly numbers.

And some of what she'd learned from that voice was being used right now as she estimated the diameter and height of jar in front of her. She wasn't using any units that a school would recognize, but she was using the same standard for all her measurements and that was all she needed.

The rest of the math was all the same.

And then she was looking at the fruit-flavored skittles in her hand and examining them, her feet kicking back and forth childishly.

"All right, here's your soda," Deimosu said handing her a fizzy red drink that smelled of sweet things she hadn't had before.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Cherry limeade," Deimosu said. "It's something from America, I hear."

"Mmm," she said, taking a long sip. "Can I go write a number on the list?"

"Sure," Deimosu said, looking over at the booth that was taking guesses for how many skittles were in the big jar, best guess and winner to be announced in a another hour or two.

Coming away from the booth and walking through the festival some more, Yaku watched the colorful dances and entertainments, blinking and restraining the repetitive urge to giggle at some of the sights. Curiously, she was hearing laughter from all around, there was some girl laughing especially loud a little bit ago.

That girl had sounded familiar, actually.

"Deimosu-san, are you going to be my brother?" she asked.

He shuffled about uncomfortably.

"I have to do something…dangerous," he said. "Do you know what that means?"

"You might die?" Yaku asked.

"Die?" Deimosu said, surprised the girl jumped to that.

"That's what they call it when a person breaks and can't be fixed," the little girl said.

"Right," Deimosu said, embarrassed. "So you see, I can't take you with me. You might get hurt."

"Why do you need to do something that could make you die," Yaku asked.

Deimosu frowned quietly.

"Some people hurt my mother," the demi-god said. "I have to…make sure they don't hurt anybody else."

That wasn't his motivation, though. He wanted revenge, and he had to admit that.

"I can help," the little dark-haired girl said, clutching the shark.

The blonde haired Satomi had to laugh at that.

"I'm sure you can kid," he responded with a smile.

"No, really," she said. "I can make things."

"Let's get safe first, then talk about other things," the Satomi boy said as he ruffled at Yaku's hair.

****

"You had to place a guess at the jar," Nimu noted.

"It wasn't a guess," Yonjuu protested. "It was a count."

"How did you count them?" Sanya asked. "All you did was walk up to the glass and lean over your oversized torso to put your ear against the glass while you knocked on it."

"Be fair, Sanya," Nimu said.

"Thank you, Ne-san," Yonjuu sai, smoothing out her clothes.

"Right, sorry," Sanya said. "You were leaning your side against the glass so your chest wouldn't have been in the way, sorry."

"Excuse me, young miss," a man said stepping out in front of her. "A young college-going girl like yourself, out with your younger sisters, should feel right at home in trying their hand at this test of skill and accuracy."

Nimu turned to see a large array of bottles and several containers of rings.

"Skill and accuracy," she repeated moving to pick one up and nodding appreciatively at the shifting weight of the ring.

These were well designed throwing rings. The shifting weight, when thrown by an expert such as herself, would result in just that extra bit of impact when it struck. She looked out over the bottles and noticed several rings around the bottles and worked out the nature of the game being presented.

"I suppose a little practice would be in order," Nimu said.

Two minutes later, Nimu had a stuffed godzilla as a flabbergasted barker rambled about how something had happened "twice in one day."

It had been a while since the Mistress had quit teaching them how to fight. Since most of the other Ichi batch had tried to break free of her. Now they all had to just settle for their powers and experience when she sent them into fights and tasks.

And that had lost Nimu a lot of sisters, older and younger.

But she, herself, still knew a thing or two, and she'd been practicing and teaching what she knew, quietly, the sisters she could. Probably why the girls under her had survived so long.

"Enjoying the festival, Nimu-ne-san?" Sanya asked the apparent college-girl teasingly.

"Have you noticed anybody here yet?" the eldest responded in a deadpan serious tone.

"That's the Ni's job," the lolita ogre said, pointing to Yonjuu. "I'm just here to beat them up when we find them."

"That's a 'no'," Nimu decided as she turned toward the girl with the strong physical senses. "Have you noticed anything?"

"Not really," Yonjuu said. "There's a lot of fireworks and smoke in the air, hard to get a good scent of anybody in particular. It all just blends into a mess. I've been breathing through my mouth most of the time to avoid gagging."

"You still didn't answer the question, Nimu-ne-san," Sanya reminded her in a sing-song voice.

"Yes," Nimu said glumly. "I'm enjoying the festival."

****

Tokijo wiped his forehead as he looked over his jury-rigged repairs on the strength test and breathed a sigh of relief. At least he'd get a good two or three more hours of operation before the crowds started to thin out.

And here was his first victim coming now.

A blonde gaijin teenager walking through the crowds with a kid who was carrying a big stuffed shark. Obviously he'd already had some luck at the carnival, which meant he'd be ripe to pluck.

"Excuse me, young man," he said, smirking. "Care to test your strength?"

A few minutes later Kojiko watched the blonde guy walk off with his prize and then looked toward his machine and the now clearly shorting out electromagnet. After that he looked toward the festival reps and police officers heading his way.

This was just not his night.

****

"Okay, everybody," a voice called out over the loudspeaker. "We're going to announce the winner of the 'guess how many skittles' contest in the next few minutes so get yourselves over here to find out if your guess is the correct one."

****

On one side of the festival, Yonjuu steepled her fingers together, smirking. I few quiet echos from her knocks on the side of the jar, with her ears against the glass and she had probably the most exact estimate of skittles of anybody.

"Okay, let's get this last thing over with and back on mission," Nimu said.

"What are we going to do with all the prize money?" Yonjuu wondered to herself.

"Is that the prize?" Sanya wondered. "I thought it was the candy."

****

In another area, Yaku simply wondered if her calculations were accurate. She thought they were, but it would have been better if she had another jar to compare it to. Oh well, she thought the numbers were still right, they usually worked well for her.

"What was the prize for that contest anyway?" Deimosu asked her.

"Some money," Yaku said in an aside as if that wasn't overly important.

****

"Okay, after the tally and the count," the cheerful speaker was saying as she waved at the crowd. "We've come to the astonishing conclusion that we have a tie for the most accurate guess."

"What?" Yonjuu said, surprised. "Who's going to be able to match my count?"

"Each of these guesses is an amazing two pieces off in their count. Yonjuu Ni at 3,789,546 and Yaku Go at 3,789,542," the speaker continued.

"I was wrong?" Yaku asked with a expression quite similar to the one she had worn when she missed almost all her ring tosses earlier.

"You were only off by two," Deimosu said. Though he was more concerned with the other name connected to the winning.

"The prize money collected from the booth entry fees will be split between both guessers," the hostess added. "So why don't both parties come up and get their prize money!"

"Well, I suppose it shall have to do," Yonjuu said in disappointment, not paying attention to the name of her competition.

Nimu lingered behind, frowning and eyes narrowed.

"What?" Sanya asked, looking back at their elder sister.

The what came clear as both groups stepped out in the open to collect their money.

"Everybody give them a hand!" the speaker said as both Yonjuu and Yaku started forward.

The three sisters and Deimosu stared across at each other as Yaku quite calmly walked up to the podium.

"Why was I wrong?" she asked the woman at the podium.

"Excuse me?" the woman asked bending down to the little girl.

"You said I was wrong by two," she said. "Why? I counted it all up."

"You're one of the winners?" the woman said.

"Yaku, it means 'benefit' which is something that helps a person," the girl said.

"Wow, you must be very smart!" the woman said, "here's your prize. Isn't this amazing, everybody, what a brilliant child here!"

The camera flashes that followed were the trigger for the action.

Yaku blinked at the cameras, waving a bit innocently as Deimosu moved forward to pick her up and the three sisters darted forward to try and grab her.

The confused event hostess could only blink as the five people left in varying degrees of speed, only to have one of the three teenaged girls return a minute later, grab the other envelope and bow.

"Thank you very much," Yonjuu said.

"Yonjuu, we're going to need you!" the oldest teen girl shouted back.

The girl, trying as much as possible to hide or minimize her generous chest, flashed a victory sign (or perhaps just the number 2) at the cameras and then dashed off.

****

"I swear, there was something freaky about that kid," Tokijo claimed. "He must have set me up before he had his try. Yeah, I bet he put that magnet in there and rigged it to fail."

"And he did this all in twenty seconds between you finishing repairs on your rig and your half-dragging him over to try it," one of the annoyed men in uniform suggested.

"But..."

"You have thirty minutes," one of the officers said. "If we see you in this festival after that time, you're going to jail."

Tokijo sighed in minute relief as the officers walked away, leaving him to pack up for the night. Maybe he'd be able to get a lawsuit out of this or something.

He barely turned about when a tall blonde figure rushed past him, barely registering the teen that had just got him kicked out of the festival, the man turned to rage at his nemesis, only to be flattened to the ground by a slim foot.

Looking up from his newly prone position, he caught sight of the youngest of the three sisters he'd tried to bilk later. The very same one that had just about splintered his rig. Groggily watching her through the concussion he watched her pick up his sledgehammer and light out after the boy.

And then two more sets of feet stomped into his back and onward.

****

Sanya leaped up with all her genetically enhanced might, trying to cut off Deimosu's retreat with their younger sister.

"You can't escape now that we've see you, little boy," Sanya shrieked. "Ohhh-HOHOHOHOHO!!"

As she landed Deimosu pulled the little girl out of the way, and then the hammer in her hand slammed down into the ground.

Over-balanced, she was too busy righting her to even be aware of Deimosu's response until she had the eerily elative feeling of weightlessness and the discovery that her feet were spinning over her shoulders fast enough to reproduce a moment of no gravity.

She had time to produce the thought "cool" before she slammed into, rather through, a nearby wall.

Then Deimosu was running again, Yaku on his back, clutching her stuffed shark

"Is she all right?" Yaku asked.

Deimosu glanced over his shoulder and winced, he hadn't thought he'd hit her that hard.

****

The younger of the three numbered huntresses wasn't seriously hurt, but she spent several seconds unburying herself before she could even stand unsteadily. From there she had to try to regain her sense of balance and direction. It was almost a minute before she was sure of even which direction she was facing, by that time the chase was well out of her line of sight.

Fortunately, the signs of passage were somewhat less mobile.

****

Nimu thought about moving ahead to cut off the fleeing young-man and their sister, but she didn't want to be seperate from Yonjuu. If Sanya was still with them, it would have been one thing, but the ogre of their group had already been left in the dust.

They passed by the stand with the weighted rings and Nimu veered by momentarily to grab a handful of the rings and then snatched at the lengths of rope tying down the tent with the display of toys.

Stuffed animals, sodas and more scattered over the stone road to the outcry of the scam artist as all sorts of children started grabbing and leaving off into the crowd.

Nimu, still running started working with the rings and ropes.

****

The first weighted rope came whizzing over Deimosu's head with a whine that minutely warned him of its approach in time to duck low and bring Yaku out of the path of the weapon.

He glanced back in time to do a quick backflip over the silent rope that was angling toward his legs.

Both the girls were pulling their weapons back, one more quickly than the other, and Deimosu realized that at least one of his pursuers wasn't just an untrained laboratory experiment.

Though as he watched the girl with the larger chest trying to reel in her rope clumisly, he was pretty sure that the training was only extensive for one of the two.

The hammer-girl certainly wasn't very well trained.

He continued leaping back out of the village towards the hills and forests around town

"Deimosu," Yaku said quietly.

"Just a second," the martial artist said as he deflected the rope again.

The weapons weren't strong enough to do much damage, but with the weights, they could trip him up if they got lucky, at least it would be luck in the one girl's case.

Another rope came in as the girls continued to chase him, not letting him get distance on them as they kept his eyes facing them.

****

As the rope came in again, Nimu quietly pulled some of the length in before swinging again. Stepping in front of Yonjuu momentarily to cover the other girl's less subtle movements to do the same. They'd gained yards on the blonde warrior doing this and keeping him distracted with their make-shift lassos.

In a little bit, they'd be in sprinting range.

Nimu was fixated on her plan and its execution and Yonjuu was likewise distracted by the effort of using the difficult rope weapon without making a mistake such that she was ignoring what her senses were trying to tell her about the direction they were heading.

****

Deimosu grimaced as he finally noticed that the girls had been coming closer to him and the girl he was protecting.

"Deimosu," Yaku said again, a bit more urgently.

In that moment the two girls zipped forward and Deimosu found himself first deflecting the competent flying kick by the elder of the two girls. She predictably recovered from the block ready to strike out, such that Deimosu could not out right take the second girl out of the fight completely without making Yaku vulnerable.

He could, however, step aside, leaping back to place the clumsy one between the lithe older one and him.

"Deimosu-san!" Yaku shouted again as they came to a landing and the blonde martial artist felt the gaping lack of solid ground behind him.

A cliff-side, of course, not much of a problem normally, but, it was just another limit to what he could do with the kid to take care of.

"We're not going to fall, don't worry," Deimosu said confidentally as he set her down next to a tree and stepped forward. "Don't move from there."

"Hai, Deimosu-san," Yaku said.

****

Nimu saw the young man stop for what seemed to be no reason for a few moments before her tunnel vision gave way and she saw the sheer slope just beyond the young man's position.

She stopped, her eyes wide, as she suddenly realized the precarious nature of their situation. They needed Yaku alive and ofr the most part unharmed. Severe head trauma from a fall was probably something that they definitely wanted to avoid.

Unfortunately, her younger sister, despite her various enhanced senses, hadn't exactly the same level of discipline.

Yonjuu stepped forward, trying to throw a kick up into Deimosu's head. From there it would be easy for the young man to toss the tracker out into space where she would likely land badly.

If she didn't die immediately, she'd still be too damaged for the Mistress to consider it worth repairing her.

****

Deimosu noticed the slender one stop even as the bouncier of the two lodged forward in a novice's roundhouse. He grabbed her foot incoming and could read the horror on the other girl's face, obviously predicting that he was about to send her comrade, probably sister, out into open air.

These weren't his enemies though, and that look of concern on the other woman's face said they probably weren't the evil sort that his mother would likely consider worth killing.

Instead of letting her momentum continue past him out into the sky to be dashed into whatever sort of landing she could manage, he pulled straight up slamming her hard into the ground, driving her senseless.

Deimosu still had hold of her leg as he stepped aside to shield Yaku more closely now that he was down to one opponent again.

****

Sanya followed the trail of casual and not so casual destruction into the trees and hills outside the city.

"Why are there always wild areas so near every city around here?" Sanya asked. "It's like right outside the cities there's a bunch of hidden wilderness hideaways everywhere, at least there are no dangling peaks."

As she was pondering this, Sanya San caught a glimpse of motion ahead of her in the trees and noted Yonjuu getting dashed heartless to the ground as Nimu came to a stop mysteriously.

****

"You didn't kill Yonjuu," the older girl said, trying to cover her relief with a cool professionalism. "For that I'll give you a choice. That girl is our sister, we want her back."

"And what happens to the 'material' when she goes back?" Deimosu asked.

Nimu's mouth twitched and she hesitated to answer.

Unfortunately, she didn't get the chance to.

"You're mine! Ohhh-HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!" a shrill voice called out from above the small group just before Sanya slammed into the ground.

The look of horror at approaching death returned to Nimu's face and Deimosu's as well as the overly strong girl shattered the edge of the cliff.

The martial artist scooped up Yaku even as the ground underneath them became a mass of pebbles, and simultaneously kicked the instrument of the accident backwards into her elder sister.

Again, Sanya flew back further than should have been possible for the strength of the push, knocking both her and Nimu clear of the crumbling.

Which still left Deimosu with Yonjuu and Yaku to consider in a cascade of rocks and no longer having a clear ground to leap away from.

He could feel Yaku clinging to his back as he held his hand out in a gesture to use something he knew little about and had little skill with: magic.

Nimu sat up watching her sisters and Deimosu tumble away with the cliff side. A brilliant flash of light washed outward, some reflected fragment of sunlight, perhaps, and the three were gone.

Dashing quickly to the edge she found curiously no sign of blood or battered bodies as she hopped carefully down the cliffside toward the settling rubble.

There was a tingling, tantalizing trace of power in the area, the young man wasn't just a martial artist it seemed. He had inborn power, it seemed.

"I...I didn't see that you were on a cliff," Sanya called from above. "Are they okay?"

Nimu looked up toward Sanya with narrowed eyes.

"The good news is they're probably alive," Nimu noted. "He teleported or something."

"Is there bad news?" Sanya asked.

"There's no telling where they went," Nimu said. "Because he used a gift to get them there."

****

It was dark, in all directions.

Yaku listened intently, eyes recovering from the bright flash, but coming only to darkness.

"Deimosu-san! My eyes aren't working," she said in a panic. "I can't see anything."

"It's just dark," Deimosu's voice said, and a comforting hand laid down on her shoulder. "Give me a moment."

"You sound tired," Yaku said nervously, something in the back of her mind was giving an explanation, but it wasn't coming as clear as other secrets did.

The sudden crackling sound of electricity made Yaku jump as Deimosu's face, grey from fatigue, appeared out of the darkness limned in the subtle blue light of the electricity gathered in his hand.

Around them were brick walls extending on into the blackness in either direction and at their feet lay the still unconscious form of one of the three sisters that had chased them out of the festival.

"Are you all right?" Deimosu asked Yaku.

The little girl nodded, biting her lip firmly.

"Try not to be scared, we should be fine," Deimosu assured her.

"I'm not scared," Yaku said firmly.

Echoing down through the dark corridors they found themselves in, a harsh and shrill cry passed by them.

Yaku jumped and grabbed tight to Deimosu's side, who had to thrust his electrified hand upward to avoid it touching the girl.

"What's that?" Yaku asked.

"Wind somewhere," Deimosu said, hiding his own doubt at that explanation.

Yonjuu remained thankfully unconscious for the moment...


	18. Troubles Knocking at the Door

"Well, I guess that was more interesting than I thought it would be," Kaname admitted as the five of them came off the train at the station, Shinji having stayed behind with his father at the base. "It was still weird, but not the weirdest thing in the world, I guess."

"I wish I knew what happened to my memory card," Kyoko said. "I had a lot of good photos in there."

"I'm sure it'll turn up," Eija noted. "It's not like anyone would steal it, right?"

_So, we should talk, I guess,_ Kaname thought toward Eija. _And you know verbally, outloud._

_I suppose so,_ Eija responded. _We'll...have to find time to sit with Sousuke-kun privately._

Kaname arched an eyebrow, was Eija actually being hesitant about this? Whatever Belldandy said, Kaname didn't think someone as nice and well-adjusted as Eija could have had a really terrible life. Especially not with her mother and siblings to help protect her.

Before any further discussion could be made, psychically or verbally, the buzzing sound of Sousuke's cell phone ringing in his pocket came to Kaname's ears. Aside from Eija and Souske himself, she was the only one who noticed.

"I wish my lovely HS pilot could have stayed longer," Mizuki was saying. "Such a pity that he had to go so quickly."

"You mean that pervert you were harassing?" Kaname asked with a smirk, in an effort to put the image of Sousuke reading a newly received text message out of her mind's eye.

It wasn't working all that well.

This was the fourth such message he'd gotten since they'd come back from Korea. And each time he was gone for a day or two afterwards, once he'd been gone for almost a whole week.

And he often came back bandaged discretely, minor injuries most people didn't notice and which Kaname pretended to miss as well.

Still, she was slowly getting to hate it when that cell phone buzzed.

_I'm the same when mother gets a butterfly,_ Eija noted.

The serious look on Sousuke's face deepened somewhat, and, with a quiet nod, he slipped the cell phone back in his pocket.

Damn, couldn't they have gotten through the summer break at least before calling him back to "work"?

*****

Kouta swung in with her spatula, at least seeming to force a sidestep from Kurumi into the combination that Naiki had prepared for her, but the woman was too quick.

A simple lift of her shin made the snap-kick Naiki had aimed at her knee useless and then allowed the woman to hook around on the inside of her leg as an open grip caught Naiki's wrist. The next moment, Naiki was rolling hard across firm ground, taking some minor bruises as she bent into a roll to absorb at least some of the impact.

Kouta blinked as Naiki flew past her upside down, it was a momentary distraction that cost her plenty. She lost her momentum on the swing of her spatula, ending her sequence early. The chef was barely aware of that before she was taking her own ride across the asphalt and dirt.

Kurumi's smirked at the gentle tossing she'd given both children as they picked themselves up. The smirk ended as she felt a gathering of power that wasn't chi behind her. She turned in plenty of time to avoid the sickle shaped pishogue filled blast of energy, shaped like a blunted sickle, that Naiki lashed out with.

"A diabolist in this race?" Kurumi said cautiously.

"Diabolist?" Kouta said as she stood up and looked at Naiki who stood their in stance. "What does that mean?"

"Diabolist? Ha!" Naiki said. "I'm Naiki Satomi, the..mmph!"

In a burst of smoke, a blonde gaijin woman appeared, wrapping a hand around Naiki's mouth.

"Forgive my apprentice here," Mara said in a slighty embarassed tone of voice. "She's a bit full of---!"

Mara jumped clear of Naiki, eyes wide as she rubbed at her rear end and glared at Naiki, who was doing her best to give an innocent appearance.

Before Mara could chastise her student's overly developed sense of sexuality, a grim looking Kurumi charged forward.

Mara was not a war-demon. When it came to open battle, she was decidedly support staff, but she was not helpless. Amongst other things, she'd learned to dodge and avoid the attacks of the very best.

It was usually a good way to buy time until some opportunity came to take the arena out of physical combat.

She dived under the woman's strike, noting it moved very fast.

Very, very fast.

A second strike would have hit her if she hadn't moved to teleport away before the first had finished.

"What the hell?" Mara demanded as an uncertain Naiki moved to stand between her teacher and the now serious martial artist. Kouta watching in a combination of confusion and shock.

"Hell's right," Kurumi said, lashing forward and putting Naiki off her feet in a simple twist before moving on toward Mara, watching carefully as she did so.

Mara narrowed her eyes herself and burst into a cloud of smoke, her opponent turned immediately, scanning for the demoness.

The martial artist didn't think that Mara might have vanished and reappeared in the same spot. Not until a blast of pishogue fueled power burst into her back, rocketing her across the scene.

Kurumi landed hard and stood a bit unsteadily, surprised at the power of what had hit her. Still, a quick survey implied no real physical harm had been done.

What had happened was that she'd lost the initiative against a Class I demoness.

It was barely a moment before she found herself pulled up into the air, off her feet and away from any sort of leverage she could use.

"Do you think you're the first person to try and read my teleporting?" Mara asked, hands outstretched towards Kurumi.

Kurumi narrowed her eyes and willed her aura outward in a burst of mana that shattered the pishogue-driven telekinesis around her.

Mara smirked as the woman dropped to her feet and launched herself forward at where she thought the demoness was standing.

Mara's image faded away, revealing a metal traffic sign, which Kurumi easily plowed through.

"Lady, you have no way to win this fight," Mara's voice came from behind her. "You don't even know where the battle is happening."

Kurumi blinked and took in the surroundings, noticing that both the other diabolist and the young okonomiyaki chef had seemed to vanish.

It was just her and the blonde woman.

"I've dealt with your kind before, witch," Kurumi said. "I've seen your masters."

"Really?" Mara said. "You think we're diabolists, then? Some contract bound fools?"

"I recognize black magic when I feel it poisoning the air," Kurumi said, advancing a bit more cautiously now.

Her mind worked backward for a moment, remembering the visage of the horned and reptillian monster that some power mad witch had summoned to take revenge on his home village for ostracizing him.

"So you've had one encounter with a daemon, and you think you know all there is to know about demons and pishogue?" Mara asked.

"How did you kn..." Kurumi's eyes widened and then narrowed. "Get out of my mind, lady."

"I really don't think so," Mara said laughing.

She started to say something else when suddenly she stumbled forward, rubbing the back of her head.

Slowly, the world around Kurumi faded out and back in, revealing things as they really were.

A red-headed woman a little older than herself was standing beside the diabolist, obviously having knocked the blonde across the back of the head with her hand.

"Can we stop this," the red-head asked irritably. "This is a competition, not a war zone."

Kurumi frowned and took in the new woman, recognizing the command of chi she held, as well as those that followed behind.

"Do you know what that woman is?" Kurumi asked.

"Yes, Kurumi, I do," Ranma said firmly, stepping forward.

"How do you know my..." Kurumi narrowed her eyes.

"Hey! You," a loud voice called out, and another thirty year old martial artist pushed forward, distinctive spatula in her hand. "You owe me some money for stolen food with thirty years interest!"

The ridiculousness, and possible truthfulness, of the claim shook Kurumi off her remembered rage against the pishogue-users.

Ranma rolled her eyes.

"Ukyou not the time for grudges," she muttered.

Listening in and looking at all the exchanges, Naiki slumped and rolled her head back in frustration.

_Is every adult I meet going to be an old friend of my mother's?_ she wondered mentally.

_Given you're living near where she did as a teenager?_ Tessa replied, still holding back on asking for advice on her upcoming physical fitness test.

_I'm doomed,_ Naiki sighed.

"Would someone explain what is going on?" Kouta demanded.

"Who are you and how do you know me?" Kurumi demanded.

"I fought you and your sister once," Ranma said. "With Akane Tendo."

Kurumi's eyes broadened for a moment and then she nodded.

"You're the red head that came out of nowhere," Kurumi said. "I'd always meant to ask Akane about you. What are you doing with these diabolists?"

"They're not diabolists," Ranma said firmly.

"I can practically smell the black magic on them," Kurumi protested. "Have you seen what a demon can do?"

"I've had some recent experience," Ranma noted sourly. "Do you have something specific?"

"Five years ago," Kurumi said. "There was a village called Mizuho."

"Mizuho?" Mara said with a curled lip. "I've heard about them. A town of degenerates and yakuza."

"And the demon was making deals with them," Kurumi said harshly.

"Did those deals work out for them?" Mara asked. "The way I heard it, that town was wiped off the map."

"And all the innocents that lived there?" Kurumi demanded pushing into Mara's face.

"Wait," Naiki said. "You're saying demons killed innocents? I thought they just punished evil."

"Is that how they pulled you in?" Kurumi asked.

"Some demons are a bit extreme," Mara said crossing her arms. "But usually there's a hero or two around to keep innocents out of the crossfire. It's easy to arrange."

"My sister lost her arm in the last fight," Kurumi noted. "More than a thousand people were left homeless."

"And hundreds of evil men were left dead, crippled or imprisoned," Mara protested. "The ends justifies the means."

"You think you're some sort of holy avenger, diabolist? Using demons to punish the wicked?" Kurumi asked.

"I'm not using demons," Mara snapped. "I am a demon. First Class. Demon of Smoke."

Kurumi's eyes widened as she looked from Mara to Naiki. Off to the side, Ranma sighed deeply and shook her head, Ukyou and Kouta staring in a bit of shock.

Mara, demonic pride pushing up, failed to notice she'd broached her cover and continnued on.

"What would you prefer, some white knight god?" Mara asked. "The best of them wouldn't break their rules to get involved, and the worst of them..."

Mara stopped as she looked over toward Ranma as she realized what she was doing.

"The worst examples of any creature are people you don't want to meet," Ranma said. "And thank you, Mara, for finally showing my daughter what she's gotten herself into."

Mara crossed her arms and frowned in response, but stayed quiet. The red-headed woman was right about what had happened. This was not how she wanted to introduce Naiki to some of their harsher methods.

"Well," Ukyou said nervously. "Shall we move on to get something to eat."

"I'm not going to eat with demons," Kurumi protested, and considering her appetite, that was saying something.

"Go on ahead," Ranma said to Ukyou. "I'll catch up. Mara, I think you have something you can do."

Mara turned to look at Ranma's back, narrowing her eyes.

"I still have some..."

"Should we have another conversation?" Ranma asked casually.

"You know, that's not going to work forever," Mara noted. "I'm a class 1 demon, you're..."

Ranma turned to look at Mara, who remembered that she was talking to a human capable of class 1 chi effects without any sort of enhancing equipment or an attachment to a network.

And she was wearing limiters.

"Right, leaving now, ma'am," Mara said swiftly before bursting into a cloud of smoke.

"You DID beat up my teacher," Naiki said embarrassed.

"Go get some okonomiyaki," Ranma said with a smile. "Ukyou, can you take care of her for a bit?"

"Uh, sure," Ukyou said, not saying anything about what was going on. "Kouta, Naiki, let's go."

Ranma waited for the others to leave before speaking to Kurumi.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't know you'd be here and didn't know you had history with demons."

"You don't seem overly concerned that your daughter made a pact with a demon," Kurumi said. "But I don't see any black magic on you."

"She didn't make a pact," Ranma said.

"But I can...is she a demon too?" the speedy martial artist asked.

"Mara pegged her for recruiting," Ranma said. "Naiki toyed with something that linked her mind with another girl's. That girl had a power that would have eventually caused their minds to merge. Mara panicked and rushed the recruitment to make sure my daughter's mind and identity were safe."

"And serving the forces of evil is better?" Kurumi asked.

She stared at Ranma's aura, noting the large amount of tampering the red-head had. White magic, not black. In fact, now that she thought of it, there was a strong thread of the same energy in the younger demon, but no chi.

"Mara's not evil," Ranma said firmly. "Reckless, impulsive and prideful, not unlike me when I was young. Only she's a lot older and should know better. Still, she is not evil."

"I didn't like how she was trying to whitewash the existence of being a demon though. Thanks for provoking her into that argument. Should give Naiki something to think about. I just wish she hadn't said she was a demon."

"She stopped short talking about the worst of the gods," Kurumi said cautiously. "And looked at you."

"I've learned recently that demons and gods are just very old races," Ranma said. "And they've been competing for millenia and using us in that conflict for most of that time."

"As if we don't have enough problems with that in Asia between the USSR and the US," Kurumi noted.

"Anyway," Ranma said. "I apologize in advance for any trouble Naiki might give you if you see her again. You mentioned Natsume, she lost an arm?"

Kurumi nodded.

"There was a monster that got summoned," the ribbon wielder said. "She's fitted with a prothestic, but they're not up to human ability yet."

"Normal human, or us?" Ranma asked.

"Us," Kurumi said without hesitation. "She's teaching in Northern Japan. I forget, how are you related to Akane?"

Ranma took a deep breath and considered carefully as she looked around for onlookers before trying out Persephone's gift for the first time. She grew several inches, more than a full foot in fact, and broadened, chest flattening and waist widening until there was not a red-head there, but a dark-haired man.

Kurumi's eyes widened as she recognized the form Ranma had taken.

"You're her fiance!?" Kurumi gasped.

"Was," Ranma said, shifting back to the female form she'd been in the last seventeen years or so. "Circumstances changed things."

*****

Deimosu looked up and down the vast corridor nervously, hand lighting the way as he hefted the unconscious akira in a fireman's carry. His other hand, the one not currently producing light, was being held tightly at the wrist by the little girl at his side.

With a bit of thought, he let the crackling electricity leave his hand out into the air and hold it there as he put his other hand under the unconscious girl's legs. Keeping the electricity in mid-air like that required significantly more effort than he liked for just a light, but it wasn't like he had much of an option.

There was no sign of life in the corridor.

No cycle of chi beyond what the three of them had brought with them.

No dark magic or white magic to imply that they were in a place like heaven or hell.

No twinge of electricity or magnetism pointing out north and the other directions.

They were in a dead place.

Travelling forward, it wasn't long before they came to an intersection. It split in five ways aside from the path he had just followed to that point. Choosing a direction at random, he led Yaku down the path.

It was obvious that this place hadn't always been dead. Bones littered their walk way. Broken, fragmented and fractured, they lay scattered all about. In many cases, Deimosu could see where something had gnawed on the bones and sucked out the marrow.

It didn't worry him, however. The bones were old, dry and covered in a thick layer of dust. Nothing had disturbed anything in this place for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

Several more random turns and they passed by the largest pile of bones yet. Some sort of animal with two large bullish horns, one cracked off and laying in the midst of the animal's scattered ribs. The remnants of legs and at least two hooves lying at the end of the pile. Sharp teeth lay scattered about the jaw, loosed from their place by time and impact when the thing met its death.

Yaku clutched tighter against Deimosu as they skirted around the huge pile of bones.

They came back to it again some forty minutes later as the girl Deimosu was carrying started to come awake.

A blinking of lights was filtering through yonjuu's eyelids. They weren't thick enough to shut out so much light that her sensitive eyes couldn't make out general shapes through them. Even normal humans could perceive small traces of light through their lids. Yonjuu could tell a small amount more, making out general shapes and directions of motion for instance.

There was also a gentle sense of motion and warmth around her. Someone or something was carrying her, and whoever they are were a lot larger than her sisters got. Slowly, her consciousness worked ever more awake and started to process what was going on.

Her eyes snapped open and took in the long, bone-strewn dusty hallway lit by a floating ball of electricity.

"What?!" she called, trying to stand up, forgetting she was being carried.

The young man beneath her stumbled forward before she clumisly fell backwards out of his grip. Then both were scattered across the floor. The young man stood up quickly placing himself between a child, THE child, and yonjuu as the tracker stood up in a much less graceful manner.

"Where have you taken us?" Yonjuu demanded.

"We haven't figured that out yet," the young man said cautiously. "Somewhere underground."

"I have to get out of here," she protested.

"Yeah, well we wouldn't be here if it weren't for you trying to chase Yaku down," the blonde noted.

"But she belongs to the Mistress," Yonjuu said. "We can't say no."

"You can always say no," Deimosu responded. "Now, I'm going to get Yaku and me out of here, if you want to help good. If not good luck to you."

He started to turn and walk away, keeping Yaku ahead of him.

Yonjuu looked around at the walls and darkness and the chewed on bones for several brief seconds.

"Wait," she called out. "You're going the wrong way."

"What do you mean?" Deimosu said, turning back around.

"The air is moving from this direction," she said, pointing down another corridor.

"There's no air moving," Yaku whispered from behind Deimosu, before hiding again.

"Yes it is," Yonjuu said. "Trust me on this."

"Trust the akira kidnapper," Deimosu said.

"Do you have any other choice?" Yonjuu asked.

Deimosu grimaced silently. He didn't really, he was just going in random directions himself. And this girl wanted to get out, and get Yaku out, just as badly. He'd just have to watch her when they started getting close.

"Good," Yonjuu said, "Then we go this way."

She walked a few feet down the indicated corridor and then paused.

"What's an akira?" she asked.

"It means you're stupid," Yaku declared, sticking her tongue out at her elder sister.

"Wh..where did you learn that?" Deimosu asked.

"There was a boy at the festival who did it," Yaku said simply as Deimosu sighed.

*****

It was hard to guess the amount of time that passed after Yonjuu woke up before they started talking.

"What's your name?" Deimosu asked finally.

"What?" the girl asked.

"We're going to be stuck here for some time," Deimosu said. "We might as well know each other's names. I'm Deimosu Satomi, son of Ranma Satomi. You?"

"She's a Ni," Yaku said quietly, pointing to her elder sister's chest.

"Stop pointing, it's not funny," Yonjuu said, crossing her slender arms over her chest.

Deimosu kept his thoughts to himself, but he couldn't help thinking that "Ni" in addition to meaning "two" could also mean "load or baggage" and that this "Ni" had more frontal baggage than either his mother or Naiki.

She likewise had a broader shouldered build much less slender than what he saw Yaku growing into, but there was no doubt that they were at least partially related.

"So, your name is 'Ni'?" he asked. "This girl you're trying to kidnap is Yaku."

"It means 'benefit'," she said proudly.

"No it doesn't," Yonjuu said quickly. "It means you're the..."

Deimosu cleared his throat and attracted Yonjuu's attention before darting her eyes toward the crackling ball of electricity giving them light. It fluctuated momentarily and Deimosu crossed his arms."

"Okay, it means benefit," she said, smiling nervously. "My name is Yonjuu, can you tell me what that means?"

She sounded a bit doubtful and sarcastic.

Deimosu took a deep breath, and decided to try one more time, not thinking it would work too much with this older girl, but it might help.

"Four tools," he said after a little bit of thought. He hesitated a moment and looked down toward Yaku trying to think how to continue that. "Your mind, your body, your soul and your senses."

Yonjuu blinked and stepped back a bit, looking a bit less doubtful now.

"And...'ni'?" she asked. "Does that mean anything besides..." she looked at Yaku, "you know."

"Baggage," Deimosu said without thinking as his eyes drifted down.

Yonjuu stared at him with her mouth hanging open and turned about on her heels, nose in the air as Yaku giggled at her.

"Older sister has baggage," she said.

"Wait...wait," Deimosu said, rolling his eyes as he followed the girl. "Should have said 'red earth'...maybe 'takes after mother'. No I don't think they want to be like 'mother'."

She stopped after two minutes of quick walking and back to Deimosu. In front of her was a seemingly blank wall.

"Here," she said abruptly.

"The dead end?" he said.

"The air is coming from here," she said. "This isn't a dead end. There are cracks here that's letting air out. Even you should feel it right now."

It did feel slightly less stagnant now that he thought about it.

"You're saying there's a hidden door here?" Deimosu asked.

"Or just cracks in the rock bringing air down to this place from outside," she said.

"Either way," he said. "Okay, let's...go back around that last corner."

"Why?" Yonjuu asked.

"Because I'm not as tough as my sister," he said, backing down the hall carrying Yaku with him.

Curious, Yonjuu followed along and took a position covered by the as she watched Deimosu stand in the cooridor and concentrate.

Her eyes widened as an arcing blast of electricity whipped out from the young man towards the wall. She knew he was electrokinetic, but the amount of ozone she was smelling said that he was capable of more power than she had thought.

She started to peek around the corner to see what was happening when an explosion ripped upward from the corridor. A large chunk of stone slamming into her face and sending her sprawling across the floor and dazed.

Yaku shrieked as it happened and, despite her fear of the older girl, darted over to see if her sister was okay.

After all, she had a real name now too, so maybe she'd be nice now.

Yonjuu blinked awake as she was helped to her feet by the tall blonde young man and steadied until she was able to stand mostly on her own.

"Concussion," she heard drearily. "You're going to need to rest but not sleep. Maybe inside there'll be something to sit down on."

"He said stay behind wall," Yaku said, teasing toned down a bit by the cut on the other girl's head.

Supporting the injured girl who was still trying to shake her head clear as she stumbled forward.

Then came the light as they walked into the chamber that had been hidden by the solid rock door.

Above them was a large open space looking out into the daylit but darkening sky. Everywhere about were schematics and old parchments showing a sort of winged backpack. Tools and items of all sorts, mostly ancient, but not all such.

As Yaku darted forward, she found a curiously marked stone and picked it up, eyes drifting into a sort of trance.

"Trinary matter-state computer interface," she muttered under her breath, only audible to the others by the lack of other sound.

Then a hologram image of a keyboard and several floating screens popped up out of the small rock around her. It flickered erratically, obviously long neglected, but it worked.

On the screens were the same sorts of schematics as were on the papers and parchments about the room, only far more detailed.

Yaku shook her head and looked around herself at the images, before stepping away, still holding the rock, and crying out as the images followed her and the stuffed shark she still held from the festival.

"Brother...what's this?" she asked.

As her world started to come more into focus around her, Yonjuu looked up toward the open sky and then toward Yaku. She was a bit out of her depth here, but at the very least she could make a jump out of this pit and into the world and...maybe escape Deimosu's reach.

She wasn't thinking too clearly yet, obviously.

As Deimosu was picking up the stone that the little girl had found, Yonjuu darted forward and scooped up the girl before leaping dazedly to the edge of the pit they were in.

"Brother!" Yaku shouted outloud.

"Damn it," Deimosu grumbled, leaping up in pursuit.

Yonjuu glanced back over her shoulder as she tried to navigate the rocks and gaps in the terrain. In so doing she failed to note as the rocks dropped off into a yawning cliff. Right up until Yaku screamed bringing her to turn around.

"Oh no," she muttered upon seeing her second towering depths in as many days.

Her progress forward, however, was stopped abruptly by a hand that roughly dragged her back away from the edge. She landed roughly, her butt scrapping across some rocks, as Deimosu turned around to face her.

"Girl," he said. "If you want to kill yourself, that's fine, but don't take anybody else with you."

Yonjuu responded by turning over and throwing up.

"Eww," the youngest of the three said, standing up and backing away from her elder sister.

Deimosu shook his head and looked around.

"We should be on Crete, but there's...." his eyes widened and a smile worked itself over his face. "It's hidden."

"What?" Yonjuu asked wearily.

"One of our tutors told us that the old powers hid most of the sites of ancient legend," Deimosu said. "To preserve them from the tampering of mortals that would show no respect."

"So?" Yonjuu said.

"So," he said smiling. "We're between the worlds. Exactly where I need to be."

"Can you just get me back in the room away from the gaping falls to nowhere?" Yonjuu asked.

"Yeah," Deimosu said after picking up Yaku, not noticing as the younger girl stuck her tongue out at Yonjuu. "Right after I bring Yaku back."


	19. Recipe for Trouble

Mao looked around the office building she'd been instructed to come to. It was fairly simple and not nearly as ostentatious as she had come to expect of many Mithril front businesses. The Captain hadn't been quite clear on the nature of the mission she'd be undertaking. Had been rather circumspect about it actually, which made Melissa more than a little curious.

The room was pretty sparse, with only a single desk in the front room. It looked like it had only been recently established and, as yet, had little to no staff.

"Hello," she called out.

"In here," a familiar voice called out from the main office in the next room.

Arching an eyebrow Mao crossed her arms and walked into the office and found a thirty-something red-head in the midst of a collection of papers. A scroll of paper or parchment, she wasn't sure which, sat on her desk.

"I'm supposed to do some decoration to 'blend in'," Ranma said over her shoulder. "But I think I'll save that for now."

"What's going on Satomi?" Mao asked. "The Captain asked me to report to a Mithril agent and I find you here?"

"Yes, somewhat new," Ranma noted, frowning as he looked over a pair of photographs in her hands. "I took the position two weeks ago."

"Right after the Behemoth incident," Mao said, frowning. "What is the position by the way?"

"That'll be in the file," he said. "And I'd rather discuss the mission first."

"And that is?" Mao asked.

Ranma walked over and handed her a file folder.

"We think we found a whispered," Ranma said. "Or at the very least a place that might soon have a whispered. Some of the situation leaves the mission in my lap rather than tactical's and I requested you."

The red-head perfunctorily gestured for Mao to follow her to a table where she started layout her own copies of the information.

"This facility is staffed by a collection of what seem to be teenagers and young women," Ranma said. "And they're rather a strange bunch."

Mao looked up from her bundle down to the pictures and noted multiple pictures of what seemed to be the same set of three different girls. A closer look showed her that some of the pictures showed sets of twins or even triplets. There were minute differences between the girls, small scars, a freckle out of place and the like.

"Clones?" Mao asked in semi-disbelief.

"It's the first I heard of it," Ranma said. "Not even magic has made that work right."

"So why does a bunch of xerox kids make this your backyard instead of ours?" Mao asked.

"Well, no one's gotten video," Ranma said, spreading out another set of pictures. "The ones with the chests seem to be the oldest, maybe seventeen. The reports imply they have sensory abilities. The short slender ones," he pointed to several girls that appeared to be fourteen or fifteen years old, "seem mostly to have enhanced abilities. The youngest blast stuff, fire, wind, lightning and all that."

These last appeared to be no older than thirteen.

"And just a day ago, I got this," Ranma said placing another photograph down.

Mao arched an eyebrow in surprise as she recognized Ranma's son in the photograph with two girls like the sets already pointed to and a third who looked related, but was older than any of them. Probably twenty years old or so.

"That's..."

"A fourth type, abilities unknown," she said. "Yes and I know, and that's my son yes, but this picture is from a few days ago and nowhere near where we're going. And they've already left the area they were seen in."

The tightness of emotion was buried under the words, but it wasn't hard to miss.

Not at all.

Mao looked around and realized that access to information might, no might about it really, have been part of why Ranma accepted this job.

"Where'd these pictures come from?" she asked.

"The last, some kid's cell phone that got posted online," Ranma said. "The others, Intelligence Division, I'm told. I'm also told that Intelligence Division doesn't really get information like this in the end."

Mao nodded, thinking about Tessa's warning about how classified this mission was.

"So we're supposed to sneak into a facility run by a bunch of kids with supernatural abilities," Mao said. "What if they feel us coming or something."

"I've got ways around telepaths and such," Ranma noted. "And I don't think these girls have training."

"How do you know that?" Mao asked.

"Been looking at these pictures a lot," Ranma said. "They're really undisciplined. The stuff that's got us the information are stupid mistakes."

"Okay, so we're trying to sneak past a bunch of akiras," Mao said. "Wonderful, they could blow everything up around us and not even know we were there when they did."

"Yep," Ranma said with a grimace. "That's right. We're going in to figure out what's going on. If there's a whispered, we're supposed to get them out."

"And if we find any sign of your son there?" Mao asked.

"Then I have no orders forbidding me from burning the place down," Ranma said matter of factly.

*****

Eija hesitated briefly outside the elevator, staring down the hallway toward Kaname's apartment. Any closer and she was certain Kaname would know how close she was, and she wasn't quite psyched up to the conversation Kaname wanted to have with her and Sousuke.

_Are you almost here?_ Kaname's mental voice asked, slightly distracted, and a bit hesitant herself.

_I'm...on my way,_ Eija returned.

_Should...should we have this discussion privately first?_ Kaname asked, apparently noticing the nervousness in Eija's thoughts.

_There is nothing we can keep private from each other for long,_ Eija said reluctantly.

_We could talk to each other first, and talk to Sousuke later,_ Kaname said. _If that'll make you more comfortable._

_He leaves tomorrow,_ Eija noted, even her thoughts quiet.

_We can always talk to him after,_ Kaname said comfortingly.

Eija stayed quiet for a long moment.

_Eija?_

_Kaname...there might not be an after,_ Eija responded grimmly.

The impression that came back through the link was one of stopped motion and a deep breath.

_I know._

There was an extended silence.

The elevator behind Eija beeped in announcement of disgorging another passenger, and the young goddess stepped forward quickly and turned about to find Sousuke stepping out of the door with an curious expression.

"Satomi-san," he said with a trace of something that may have been surprise or may have been a simple greeting.

"Oh, Sousuke-kun," Eija said quickly. "I didn't mean to be in the..."

_Wait a minute,_ Kaname thought.

"Oh dear," Eija said.

"Is something wrong?" Sousuke asked.

Down the hall, the door to Kaname's apartment slammed open.

"Eija-chan," Kaname said with a feral smirk and an uplifting tone to the honorific. "Did you plan to stand out there and chat with me until I finished making dinner?"

"Of course not," Eija said as she stepped forward quickly, ducking around the glaring Kaname.

The glare was rounded up as Eija moved into the apartment, turning toward a new target. Sousuke flinching at the look.

"Are you coming in Sousuke?" she asked. "Or did you plan on just standing there all evening?"

"No ma'am," Sousuke said abruptly.

"Then get in here Sergeant Sagara!" she snapped. "On the double."

"Yes ma'am!" Sousuke agreed, snapping a salute and moving in past her.

"And none of that 'ma'am' stuff," the blue-haired dynamo insisted.

"Yes ma...Understood, Chidori-san," Sousuke said.

****

It was fifteen minutes later that the three had sat down at Kaname's table and started to eat the dinner. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence before they started up a conversation that moved across some minor topics.

The challenge to take on Megumi in a battle-tech match, something the girls were for once more enthusiastic about than Sousuke was.

A question about how the repairs in Sousuke's apartment had worked out.

Discussion of the meal.

A talk about Naiki and the takeout race.

Eventually, however, the topics wore down.

"I believe that you said you wanted to talk to us about something important," Sousuke said finally during one of the lulls.

Kaname set down her chopsticks and fidgited a bit.

"Well," she said. "I...feel that you're..."

_Important._

"Important," Kaname said quickly. "To me...and Eija."

"Chidori-san?" Sousuke said.

"I mean, you...we...uh," Kaname stuttered.

_He's our bodyguard._

"He'...You're our bodyguard. So we, uh should know more about you. And you...should know more about us."

"I see," Sousuke said. "This is rather forward thinking of you."

Kaname and Eija both flushed at the comment, each thinking a different meaning of "forward thinking" than what Sousuke was.

"Really?" Kaname asked.

"Indeed," Sousuke noted with a nod. "It is a good idea to have a full accounting of my skills for future situations."

"That's not a bad idea," Eija noted, turning toward Kaname and catching her eye. "We shoul...erm, later."

"Later?" Sousuke asked, a bit confused. "Then what do you mean?"

"What was your childhood like?" Kaname asked.

Sousuke turned silent and sat up a bit straighter as he took in the question. Though it seemed to be more a confusion as to the importance of the question than anything else.

"I spent most of my childhood in Helmjastad," Sousuke noted.

"Oh, right," Kaname said

Kaname remembered some of the side comments he'd made in the past that she'd once taken to be otaku fantasizing or descriptions of some video game.

"It was memorable time," Sousuke said. "I met many worthy comrades and learned much about how to fight."

"Was it hard to leave them behind when you went to Mithril?" Kaname asked.

Sousuke opened his mouth and then closed it.

"I did not go immediately to Mithril from Helmjastad," Sousuke said.

Kaname looked like she was about to push the issue of her original question, but was interrupted by Sousuke's next word.

"How about your childhoods?" he asked. "I've read your files, but I would be curious to hear more first hand intelligence."

Eija started to look toward Kaname and noted the blue-haired girl was already looking toward her, and sighed.

"I come from a martial artist family," Eija said. "So I've also trained since childhood. We've always been on the move, I'm afraid, so we've never had many permanent relationships outside of family."

She took a deep breath.

"Yeah, we moved around a lot too," Kaname said. "My father works for the UN. Lost a lot of friends."

"Lost?" Eija asked.

"Left behind," Kaname corrected. "Moved away from."

"Oh, I see," Eija noted

Despite the way she was behaving, the blue-haired girl knew both Eija and Sousuke were holding back, trying to avoid touching on bad memories perhaps. Or trying to avoid laying too much on Kaname.

Kaname grimaced and bit her tongue, not wanting to yell at them for once, though a large part of her disagreed heavily. She didn't have much other way to convince them to share though, as much as Eija seemed to agree they needed to.

She needed a way to see what they didn't...

"Say, Eija," Kaname asked. "Didn't those goddesses say something about how goddesses could share powers."

"Yes, through spells," Eija said. "Though apparently that was less necessary before the safeguards were added, but I don't see what that has to do with what we're..."

Eija froze as she realized what Kaname was thinking of doing.

"Please don't do that," the dark haired goddess said.

"What is she thinking of doing?" Sousuke asked.

"I want to borrow Eija's sight," Kaname explained.

"Don't look at me like that, please," Eija said.

Sousuke thought back to the airplane when he briefly shared in Eija's unique sensory abilities.

"Perhaps it is best to avoid that," Sousuke said quietly.

"I can't," Kaname said. "I have to know. I don't know if I could do it without help, and I don't want to. But please, I need to know everything about you...both of you. Before...just in case."

Sousuke and Eija understood "just in case" and shifted uncomfortably as they shared a look. Slowly, Eija took a breath and retreated into herself as she nodded.

"Go ahead and try," the goddess said.

Sousuke stood stoically, the nervousness clear in how his muscles were all tensing up.

Kaname tried to remember what it was like when she last drew information from Eija, but that hadn't been a conscious thing. It had been just a flood of information. This time she was looking for something specific. Eija had given her permission, but Kaname didn't think she was helping.

She paused and shook her head.

"Well, I suppose..." Eija started to say, relieved.

And Kaname fell into a Whispered trance and the vast information available in the flow of things within the words. The process of accessing a pool of abilities came to her what seemed to be slowly, as Eija's lips slowed down in mid sentence.

Her link with Eija made it possible, even though she still had to rework some of what the Whispered trance was instructing her to do, and eventually, she found what she wanted.

"...that's for the...oh dear," Eija finished as she saw the blood spread through Kaname's eyes.

"Miss Chidori?" Sousuke said, concerned. "Are you all right."

Kaname meanwhile stared at the two people in front of her, red eyes wide as she took in what her borrowed vision showed her.

Both were stained with many red splotches and a heavy dark mist that clung close to them. They had both dealt and been touched by death many times in their lives.

"Oh my god," Kaname whispered in shock, letting the borrowed vision slip away.

Eija was right, she really hadn't wanted to see that, but she had now. Right now, the goddess was morosely staring down at her own lap, and waiting.

"Are you all right, Kaname?" Sousuke asked, standing up and reaching out toward her.

Eija closed her eyes, feeling the discord in Kaname's mind and expecting, dreading the girl's probable reaction to the gesture. She reluctantly shut out the emotions as well as possible, not wanting to hear the coming rejection in both the physical and mental worlds.

She heard the clattering of dishes and silverware, obviously from Kaname flinching away.

"Chidori-san!?" Sousuke gasped.

"I'm so sorry," Kaname returned loudly.

"Eh?" Eija wondered, opening her eyes in confusion and tentatively letting herself open back up to Kaname's mind.

Which was when she found herself grabbed up into Kaname's headlock flavored hug along with Sousuke.

"Chidori-san," Sousuke said again, futilely trying to resist the grip of the sympathetic tomboy.

"Kaname..." Eija added, likewise drawn unresistably in.

*****

Nimu stared out of the window as she and Sanya waited to be seen and to report. She looked over at Sanya and noted the girl's hand shaking a bit.

Symptoms were starting.

Of course, the Mistress only sent girls out if they were getting close to needing their "vitamin supplement". She and Sanya had a good week, and, assuming the Mistress did not punish them for their failure, that was plenty of time to get an injection.

Yonjuu, however. Yonjuu was off on her own who knew where. And if she was injured...

If she was injured, then she was even closer to her "expiration date" as "Mother" liked to call it.

*****

Deimosu looked out from the edge of the cliff out into the open air, frowning.

When he'd first realized where he was, he'd been ecstatic.

He was that much closer to taking out his revenge on the gods that had attacked his mother.

Now, however, he was feeling more than a little...concerned.

He put that aside, however, and concentrated instead on the auras of white magic he sensed out past the cliffs. The elements of the spells that held this place between worlds.

Deimosu didn't want to break the spell, of course. He needed this place to remain between worlds so he could use it to access the truce world. However, he also needed to know how to get in and out of the place.

First he needed to get back to Earth for three reasons.

The first was that he didn't have the equipment he wanted yet. The chi-enhancing devices Sousuke's people and their enemies had.

The second was a bit more of an immediate concern. They needed food and water, because he was running out of trail bars and there was nothing to hunt in the labyrinth.

And the third: he needed a safe place to put Yaku and perhaps Yonjuu as well.

Nodding he turned back toward the lab and leaped.

Yonjuu was sitting morosely at a table, her face still a collection of rather vivid bruises from the rock that had slammed into her. That had Deimosu more than a little concerned, even if she was nominally an enemy. The bruises should have been healing quicker.

Yaku was on the other side of the lab, messing around with the computer now that she knew what it was. Every once in a while the girl gave her elder sister a cautious look, just in case their current trapped status was forgotten and Yonjuu tried to make off with her again.

"Brother," Yaku called out happily on seeing he was back. "Is there a way out?"

Deimosu frowned and shook his head as he looked to Yonjuu nibbling on one of the ration bars.

"How much have you eaten?" he asked, with narrowed eyes.

"I'm not really hungry," Yonjuu said, crossing her arms. "I just have this one."

She'd barely started eating that one.

"Maybe you'd heal faster if you ate more than a bar a day," the demi-god noted.

"I'm conserving the food," Yonjuu protested. "We only have so much, and she needs to live."

"Right," Deimosu said.

He walked over to see what Yaku was doing and found her playing some sort of computer game on the hologram. Looking closely, it looked at the very least extremely similar to Starcraft.

"Was that on the computer?" he asked.

"No," Yaku said, legs shaking back and forth out underneath her and the chair she was sitting on.

"Where'd you get it?" he asked.

"I made it, Brother," she said cheerfully.

"You made it?" Deimosu said in surprise.

She nodded firmly and turned back to her game.

"It took me all night," she said.

"Can I play?" Yonjuu asked curiously.

"No," Yaku said, turning about with sticking her tongue out at Yonjuu.

"How the he...heck did you make a video game in one night?" Deimosu asked, ignoring the interchange briefly.

"She's a Go," Yonjuu said. "Mistress wanted assistants in her research, so they're all hyper-intelligent in some way or another."

"Go means skillful," Yaku said proudly as something bright and colorful exploded on her hologram screen.

"Is there anything else on that computer?" Deimosu asked.

"MmmHmm," Yaku said. "But I can't read it. It's all funny letters."

"Can you show me?" Deimosu asked.

"Can I finish?" Yaku asked hopefully.

Deimosu took a deep breath and shrugged.

"Fine, I need to go look for water again," he said. "When I get back, we're looking at the funny letters, okay?"

"Okay," Yaku said proudly.

"You come with me," Deimosu said pointing toward Yonjuu. "I need someone with a nose and my sister isn't available."

"Right," Yonjuu said, standing up. "And are we blowing up anymore walls?"

"Not unless we have to," Deimosu said. "I've been marking paths. I'm sure the gods will get annoyed when they come back here, but I don't really care."

"Gods, old powers," Yonjuu said as she followed behind Deimosu into the hallways of the labyrinth. "Between worlds, what are you talking about? You just say nonsense."

"Stay here, Yaku," Deimosu said.

"I will," Yaku promised.

They were well into the labryinth when Deimosu turned toward the bosom akira.

"So if there's more than one like her, why is she so important?" Deimosu asked.

Yonjuu hesitated to answer.

"Not every Go is the same," Yonjuu said. "And she's more important than most."

"Why?" the blonde Satomi asked.

"Every batch produces some psychics," Yonjuu said. "I...had a sister that was an object reader."

"And what happens to these psychics?" Deimosu asked.

"They...they go to Mother...the Mistress," Yonjuu said. "And we don't see them again."

"And you want that for her?" Deimosu asked.

"It's not a matter of what I want," the bruised girl said. "I don't have a choice."

"Everyone has a choice," Deimosu said.

They travelled several more minutes before he spoke up again.

"Smell anything yet?"

"Yes, I smell Yaku," Yonjuu said. "All the air is coming from behind us. We're looking for stuff upwind of where we are I probably won't smell anything until we're right on top of it."

The demi-god nodded and then turned to the side to burn a mark on the wall with a electrical discharge.

They turned about a corner several minutes later when Yonjuu perked up.

"I can smell something now," she said. "There's water...and mushrooms this way!"

The girl shuffled ahead swiftly and eagerly, Deimosu behind her, marking paths as quickly as he could while keeping up.

"Slow down," Deimosu instructed. "We really don't want to get lost here."

"We won't get lost as long as I can smell out the exit," she protested.

"And what if you try to lose me," Deimosu said, pulling her back. "Stay close."

"You have to take care of Yaku," Yonjuu protested, slowing down despite that.

"And you can't?" Deimosu asked.

"For a little while maybe," she said. "But I...wouldn't last long."

Deimosu frowned at that statement, before he could press the issue however, they turned the corner onto a large pool of still water fringed by an extensive growth of mushrooms. Water was gathering up on the ceiling and then dripping down into the pool, forming numerous rock formations.

And with it all, the first sign of chi that he'd found in the labyrinth aside from them. In fact, while the chi elsewhere seemed non-existant, here it was practically glowing.

Moving off to the wall as Yonjuu moved into the mushrooms and started to sort between which ones were poisonous and which weren't. It was quickly easy to find that, under the grey shell of limestone, that the walls of this chamber were built of thick crystals.

He didn't know the kind of crystal, but he did see the potential. The teen silently thanked his mother for taking the time to make them all learn at least the basics of crystal cutting. He could do some basic chi-enhancing crystals from the walls here. Especially since it looked like the crystals had been growing rampantly for a long time.

He was turning about towards Yonjuu with his water bag, ready to tell her to start grabbing stuff and getting ready to go back.

What came to his eyes was the girl sprawled over the ground, her fall softened by the mushrooms about her.

"Damn it," he snapped. "What did you eat?"

Moving to her side, however, found that there was no sign she'd eaten any of the mushrooms that fallen out of her hands. She was just unconscious for no apparent reason.

She woke up as he started to lift her off the floor and gasped, backing away from him quickly.

"Sorry," she said, embarrassed. "I must have slipped."

"Then I would have seen signs," Deimosu said. "This is what you mean that you'd only last a little while taking care of Yaku. What's killing you?"

She crossed her arms.

"The mistress needs to give me a vitamin shot," Yonjuu said after a long silence.

"Or you die, right?" Deimosu asked.

"I said we don't have a choice," Yonjuu explained hollowly. "Without her, we all die."

"We'll see about that," Deimosu said. "Let's go back.

*****

Naiki stared across at Mara and Mara stared back.

"I told you," Mara said finally. "The rules don't work, so we don't use them."

"You mean the end justifies the means and it doesn't matter if people get hurt?" Naiki asked.

"Of course it matters," the older demoness said. "But sometimes its unavoidable. And sometimes...we do lose control."

"So how many times have you almost destroyed the world?" Naiki asked.

"Err, let's talk about something else," Mara said.

"And you're supposed to be the good guys?" Naiki shouted.

Mara sighed and took a deep breath.

"It's perspective," the blonde demoness noted soberly. "We were here first. We don't deserve to be shunted off to the side by anybody. Gods or Humans. Used to be we tried to eliminate you and the Gods. The demons that believed in that are mostly locked away now. What we do instead is...make ourselves room. If we have to eliminate the poisonous parts of their people to do it, that's just beneficial to both us and them."

"Make yourselves room," Naiki said. "What about Nifelheim? Isn't that enough room?"

"For a quarter of a million, ideally. Thankfully not many of us are born every century, but even so, there's twice as many demons and others living in Nifelheim than it should hold," Mara explained. "It's artificial, it doesn't hold or support as much as Earth. It was only supposed to be a shelter through the latter days of fire, after what you call the KT event. When we stepped out, the Gods were picking the remains of our cities and our dead. Then came the war."

"They stole the secrets of dimensional crafting from us, and they built Asgard, which is built with more long-term goals in mind," Mara continued. "We stole the secrets of how to create a central processor to enhance the available energy, which is how we built Nidhog. It went on and on until we both retreated and when we came back, humans were here."

"So everything you told me about punishing evil, that's just...propaganda?" Naiki said.

"No," Mara said. "Not entirely. Many of us Believe. Just there's more than one motive. Everything is complex. Nothing is black and white. When we thought black and white, that's when we started the first war."

"You shouldn't have lied to me," Naiki protested.

"Yeah, well, deal with that later," Mara said. "Right now, we have a job to do."

"A job?" Naiki asked.

"We need you to talk to Persephone," Mara said. "Coming down from Hild. We need to find Hecate and whatever demons she's allied with before her plans take off."

"You want me to hunt down the bitch her hurt my mother?" Naiki said firmly. "I'm in."

"Hecate is a first class goddess, Naiki," Mara said. "Even without Yggdrasil, she's more than you can take. And she's war-trained, unlike me. We just find her. Let other people handle the taking her down."

"Try and stop me," Naiki protested.

As she posed, she felt a thought filter in from outside and realized that Tessa had dropped the privacy screens that she usually maintained.

_Err, Naiki, I keep letting myself get distracted from asking you this, but would you be able to help me with so..._ the thought paused. _Is something wrong? You feel like you're angry._

*****

Tessa stared out at the gym several hours later.

_Okay,_ and for once the irritated side of their link was Naiki. _We got that you can't handle the five pound hand weights...or the two pounders...let's try ONE pound._

_One pound, is that enough to build anything?_ Tessa asked.

_At your level, yes,_ came Naiki's response. _Now, again, you want to hold it out in your hand straight out for about five seconds, then bend your elbow all the way hold it there for five seconds, straighten your arm. Do that ten times, rest, and ten more times, five rests, five sets and then switch arms._

_Okay,_ Tessa noted. _So what are you up to?_

_So is that a question from a friend or from an officer in Mithril asking about a demon recruit?_

_It can be both_ Tessa said.

_It's private,_ Naiki said in response. _Are you making sure to hold five seconds each time?_

_I am,_ Tessa assured her. _I might be able to help you._

_It's nothing, okay? I'm just supposed to talk to my sister's 'grandmother'. Focus on your exercises._

_Your grand...oh,_ Tessa grimaced, she figured that talking to her godly relatives would be...trying on Naiki.

_Oh, get on with it!_ Oh, get on with it!

_Excuse me?_ Tessa asked.

_The threesome are getting sappy, Sousuke's off to his plane._

_The thre..._ And she realized who Naiki was talking about and the weight slipped out of her hand. _Oww!_

_Did you drop ANOTHER weight?_

*****

Ukyou, Konatsu, Mousse and Naoko looked across at each other as they discussed the situation before them.

"Okay," Ukyou said. "Ranchan's daughter is a demon, and he...she wants us to train her."

"A demon?" Naoko said, surprised. "She seemed a bit rough, but not that bad."

"Ukyou means literally a demon," Konatsu said. "It would explain why can feel no chi from her. Still, Ranma-san would not support anything evil."

"The Ranma we knew perhaps," Mousse said. "If she's had truck with demons?"

"The chi I feel from Ranma is strong, and touched by white magic," Konatsu said. "Surely she is blessed and someone blessed would not support someone evil."

"If a demon is not necessarily evil, then are gods necessarily good?" Mousse asked.

"How about you train her first and if you decide she's good, then bring Issei and Kouta into it," Naoko suggested.

"I can go out on a limb for Ranchan that much," Ukyou agreed after a moment.

"It'll be some time for us to think," Mousse noted. "As I heard, Ranma's daughters will be sent somewhere else while she's...out on business for the next few weeks."

*****

"Okay, Sergeant Sagara," Kaname said. "I'll see you when you get back. And you'd better get back on time so that I don't have to kill Kurz."

"Understood, Chidori, Ma..." Sousuke said crisply.

"Enough of that 'ma'am' stuff, I keep telling you!" Kaname snapped playfully, enjoying the power of the moment. "And definitely no 'sirs' either."

"Of course, Chidori-san," Sousuke said. "Satomi-san, I expect you to make sure Kaname is safe."

"Hai, Sousuke," Eija said with a bow and a smile. "I shall watch Weber-san constantly. If he must be punished, I will see to it."

"Please," Kurz said at the doorway. "I'm not freaking pervert after all."

"All evidence points to the contrary," Sousuke noted with sage nods from Kaname and Eija.

More seriously she followed that up.

"I won't let her be...touched," she said quietly, drawing a look from Kaname and an understanding nod from Sousuke.

"Oh, get on with it," Naiki demanded from where she was leaning against a pillar.

"You're going to be late, Sousuke," Kurz said irritably.

"Understood," Sousuke noted, turning about to shake Eija and Kaname's hands.

When Kaname grasped his hand she drew him into a headlock and growled quietly.

"If you don't come back in one piece, you'll be sorry," she said firmly before letting him go and watching him walk down toward the exit ramps for the small private jets.

That left Eija and Kaname behind and the waiting started.

_I wish he had longer to talk about...things with Sousuke,_ Kaname thought quietly.

_It was rather...abrupt,_ Eija noted. _But I think you managed to get across that you accepted...what we were._

_What did you think I'd do? Run screaming from the building?_ Kaname asked with a slightly angry frown. _Do you think I'm some sort of insensitive jerk?_

_I have blood on my hands,_ Eija said. _You can't know how it got there._

_Oh would you quit being stupid?_ Kaname demanded. _We're in each other's heads. We've been through life and death situations. I know the difference between a cold killer and someone...whose had an unpleasant life._

Kaname gave exaggerated breath that attracted Kurz's moderately confused attention.

_And what was all that about "she won't be touched"_ Kaname asked.

_Well..._

_Eija, spill it!_

_Sousuke and I agreed,_ Eija finally answered. _If there's killing to be done, we'll do it for you. No reason you have to..._

"What the hell does that mean?!" Kaname shouted out loud.

Kurz shook his head and sighed.

"Would you two not do the creepy mind meld thing, please?" he asked. "Anyway, here comes everybody else."

"Kaname!" Kyoko shouted out waving as she ran up to greet them. "Isn't this great?! We're going to see Okinawa after all! And we get to meet Eija and Naiki's family! Too bad Deimosu is still...you know...missing."

She waved at Naiki, and failed to notice as the demoness immediately straightened and started to preen herself.

Behind Kyoko a few other people were coming, Mizuki and Shinji among them.

As the kids gathered, Kurz dialed out on his cell phone.

*****

Ranma closed her cell phone and turned toward Melissa.

"Okay, Kurz is off with the kids," Ranma said. "Akane said they'd be safe over there. Are you ready for this?"

Melissa went over her gear, taser, stun rod, a pistol and four clips, lockpicks, PDA of pertinent information and a small tiara with a crystal that Ranma had provided for her to shield against casual telepathy.

"This is a bit risky for you, isn't it?" Melissa asked. "Your cover is near here, isn't it?"

"I've got a way around that now," Ranma said with a smirk.

"What's that?" Melissa asked.

"Someone fixed a problem I've had for the last sixteen years," Ranma explained. "So I've now got two faces to use."

"Two faces, what do you mean?" the Sergeant Major asked, turning about to face the red-head.

The older woman smirked at her and stretched out her fingers as a change started to work over her body. The woman grew a little more than a foot and bulked out as her features became distinctly male...and not a bad looking male either.

"Uhhh," Melissa said, her jaw dropping. "Wha..."

"Now, I haven't been in this body for a long time," Ranma said. "So I ain't going to be top form."

"Are you a man or a woman?" Melissa asked.

"So, are we thinking about our first attempt to seduce me as a young woman way back when, now?" Ranma asked with a bit of a smirk.

Melissa noted sh...he didn't really answer the question and decided not to press the issue, instead taking on the joke Ranma had offered.

"Are you still attracted to women, or does that change too?" she asked.

"Male, female," Ranma said, shrugging. "Doesn't change what I like. Are we ready for this?"


	20. Paisphage

Yaku looked up from her game as Yonjuu and Deimosu returned from the labyrinth with water and a bunch of mushrooms.

"Go eat something and lie down," Deimosu told the older girl. She looked about ready to protest when Deimosu cut her off and repeated the instruction in a more forceful tone. "Eat something and lie down."

"If you really insist," Yonjuu said, rolling her eyes.

"What is that?" Yaku asked, pointing at the puffy fungus that Deimosu set on the table.

"It's going to be food," the blonde demi-god promised lightly. "Are you finished with the game?"

"Ummm," Yaku said, staring up toward the hologram screen showing her game still running. "No."

"Well, save it for now," Deimosu said.

"But," Yaku said.

"Save it, I want to see the funny letters you were talking about and maybe I can help you read it," he said.

"But..."

"It might help us find a way out of here," Deimosu said with exaggerated patience.

"But..."

"Turn off the game," he said firmly.

Pouting, the little girl pushed some buttons and the holographic warriors vanished to reveal the generic screen it had started with. Words streamed by showing a status window, all in ancient Greek.

Fortunately, that was one of the languages he knew how to speak and read.

Unfortunately, the files he found were a bit beyond his understanding. Some of it was related to the rules and equations found in hermetic magic, mostly white, but that was interpersed with stuff that looked like it might be chemistry or physics he wasn't sure.

He did get the basics of what the files were discussing based on some of the initial descriptions of goals. Sailing ships, something about oars, a "resevoir of energy" and more. Of course there were the multitude of sketches on birds and wings.

There was talk about using the crystals from the gave to give the extra power needed for lift with the rather primitive materials Daedalus was using for the basic structure, wax and feathers and bones out of the myths.

Still, he couldn't make much sense of it other than those basic goals.

Deimosu glanced down at Yaku and back toward the holographic screens. He thought about asking how she managed to program anything on a computer where the keys were still marked in ancient Greek, but he had a feeling that the answer would be something he wasn't going to quite understand anyway.

"Okay, I can teach you how to understand these words," Deimosu said. "But we don't really have much time, so I have to do it the quick way."

"Quick way?" Yaku asked.

Deimosu nodded and moved over to a clear spot on the ground.

"Put the computer on the table and come over here," Deimosu said. "Sit down over there."

Across the small lab, Yonjuu sat up to watch, curious as to what was going on.

The demigod frowned and considered what spell to use.

If Hecate was right and the demons knew about him, then he should be able to use black magic now no problem. Of course, then that might tell them where he was. And they might figure out what he was up to.

If he tried to use white magic, it would hurt, and he knew it would hurt. But it shouldn't tell people where he was, at least, that's what he thought.

Really, he didn't know if either had a way to track him, or if they would notice him among thousands or even hundreds of thousands of spells cast each day. Especially something so minor as this.

Still, better safe than sorry, white magic it was, and then he could take some time to recover afterward.

Yaku sat down across from him as he started marking the ritual circle with an electrically active hand. When he was done with the small circle he reached out with hands held open and gestured for the girl to place hers into his.

He was surprised when he found Yonjuu sitting down at the circle and putting her hand in one of his.

"What are you doing?" he asked, narrowly.

"Whatever happens to her, happens to me too," Yonjuu said firmly, holding out her hand to Yaku. "The only way you keep me out of this is if you use force, and I don't think you're going to do that...so."

The blonde glared at the busty girl but had to accept that there wasn't much of a way around pushing her out.

"Is this going to hurt?" Yaku asked as she looked at Deimosu's and Yonjuu's hands, especially Yonjoo's, cautiously.

"It's not going to hurt," Deimosu said, keeping the fact that it would hurt him.

Gingerly, Yaku put her hand in Deimosu's and then, sticking her tongue out, into Yonjuu's.

"Here we go," Deimosu said as he started to chant a spell drawing from one of the many gods of knowledge.

He felt his mind reach out toward Yonjuu's and then Yaku's, carrying with it the language he wanted to give the little girl. He'd experienced this spell once before, and everything was going as he remembered it at first.

He had a brief glimpse of the two girl's souls, noting that Yonjuu's looked tattered about the edges. As if she'd been walking through a thorn filled maze or the like. Yaku's was...very bright, almost like one of his or his sisters' auras in fact.

Yonjuu's reaction was predictable, she was half panicking, and only stayin in the circle of effect due to the tightness of Deimosu's grip on her. He couldn't have her breaking away before the spell was complete, he didn't want to try this twice.

The drain started to come quickly, and in the rush of words and growing pain, he discounted the whispers that he heard echoing outward from Yaku into both him and Yonjuu.

Then the spell was finished and he very gladly let go of the flow of magic.

Slumping over he ignored the sweat covering his body as he took in a deep breath. Yonjuu meanwhile skittered away from the circle and back to where she had been lying down earlier. The fear and surprise was so thick on her that Deimosu could almost still feel it.

Just like he could almost feel the excitement that shown on Yaku's face. For several minutes she chattered away in ancient Greek, generally just speaking nonsense like any child who was just enjoying talking for talking's sake.

"What was that?" Yonjuu asked. "I looked, you were...made out of lightning. And Yaku...glows."

"Yeah," Deimosu said, a bit curious about Yaku's strong aura himself. "You get used to it. Yaku, do you think you can look at that computer now...before the spell wears off?"

"Hai!" Yaku said, blinking as she heard the words "wears off", she practically bounced over to the computer and started moving about in its files.

She bounced from subject heading to subject heading, similar to what Deimosu had done, but different in that she wasn't stopped by a lack of understanding for the scientific elements, but just because of the childish desire to see pretty much everything all at once.

As she played around in the files, hopefully looking for a way out, Deimosu moved over toward Yonjuu and looked her over carefully, wishing that he had Eija on hand to do some healing, but he had to try, even if it was just the chiatsu techniques her mother had tried to teach them all.

"What are you doing over here?" the girl asked.

"Don't worry about it," Deimosu said, taking one of her hands and arms. "I want to see if I can find a way to treat what's broken in you."

"It won't..." Yonjuu stopped talking as Deimosu started to massage her wrist and arm and some of the subtle pain in her body slowly faded away.

"Ooh," she gasped, taking a deep breath as Deimosu moved around to her back. "That does feel better."

Unfortunately, as he continued the chiatsu massage, it was quite apparent that "feel" was the only thing being improved. Now that he'd seen what was wrong, he could clearly see her aura still unravelling. All he was doing was masking the symptoms.

But at least that was something.

"Hey, there are other computers here," Yaku said suddenly.

Deimosu looked to the sensor in front of him and reluctantly stood up away from her, drawing a half disappointed, half fearful look from the black-clad girl.

"Don't worry," he said to her before walking over to see what Yaku had found.

Up on the hologram was showing a series of icons identified as other nodes in the network. He didn't really understand some of the technical stuff, but he had used computers often enough to recognize the locations in a network.

As he watched, Yaku opened up one of the connections and up came a list of numbers that at first seemed to make no sense, until he remembered his mother teaching him about navigation and...

"Coordinates," he said with a smirk.

If he was between worlds, maybe it could open out anywhere in the world?

First things first.

"So where does your Mistress keep her 'vitamin supplements'?" Deimosu asked.

****

"What are we doing, Goshichi?" one of a pair of girls asked the other, older one. "Those are where Mistress keeps...you know."

"Nimu Ichi is 'reporting', Musan," Goshichi said. "If the Mistress...let's her expire, what will happen to the rest of us?"

"If we get caught here," the younger one asked. "We'll be set to expire too."

"Don't worry, I can see all the electrical currents," Goshichi said. "I know exactly where to cut to avoid triggering an alarm. You just watch my back and do...whatever it is you do to anybody that sees us."

"Doesn't the Mistress use alarms with mechanical triggers to?" Musan asked.

"That's stupid, why would you use two kinds of alarms?" Goshichi asked.

****

Mao and Ranma moved silently over the fence, Ranma tossing the Sergeant over and then leaping over himself. At the gate, they saw two perfectly normal human guards pacing on watch.

It seemed that whoever ran this facility didn't completely trust in their super-powered minions.

Soon they were at the doorway, Melissa working on the security lock as quickly as she could. Both had quicker ways in, but neither wanted their presence known just yet. The ex-Marine had the security cracked quickly and Ranma slipped in through the open door as Mao closed it behind them.

The snuck up quietly into a main room, listening as two girls ahead of them argued quietly.

"What are you doing?" the older, one of the sensory types asked in a harsh whisper as she looked around for cameras. "That's forbidden."

"The Ichi's say we need to learn," the younger said, a blaster by her age and looks.

"The Ichis went against the Mistress and now they're almost all gone," the other said. "We can't train."

"That explains the akiras," Melissa whispered. "This 'mistress' is afraid of a rebellion."

"Think you're up for a forced rescue?" Ranma asked.

"That depends," Melissa said, bringing up her taser. "Think the two of us can secure the entire place?"

They both walked out silently, eyes directed just past the shoulders of their targets.

"Something's moving," the sensor-girl said nervously.

She turned around to face Ranma and Melissa as the former went from a slow stalk to a swift lunge in a breath. Melissa simply pulled her trigger and winced as the electrical current flowed through the girl that it had hit, sending her into convulsions until Melissa cut the current and the girl slumped unconscious.

The blaster barely had time to exhale a blast of red fire which Ranma easily directed aside tapping the girl lightly in the throat and then the abdomen with just the right force to shut her breath down long enough to knock her out without permanent injury.

"I hate beating up on kids," Melissa said under her breath as they pulled the unconscious bodies aside and secured them with gags and zip-ties. "Why is it all these terrorists use kids?"

"Because people like us hate beating up on kids," Ranma said.

They were well into the building when the alarm started blaring and lights started filling the halls.

"The hell?" Melissa asked.

"Wasn't us," Ranma said confidentally.

Even so, several akiras and guards came flooding into the hallways, and surprised to see the two commando-garbed intruders in the hallway between them and their goal.

"Get them!"

Melissa's pistol was drawn in one hand as she flipped out the electrified stun rod in the other, at her back Ranma moved into stance.

They pushed forward slowly and confidentally, picking their targets professionally and dropping them in turn.

The guards on Melissa's side found themselves with holes in their shoulders or legs as the randomly dangerous girls found themselves taking the stun rod as she moved close.

On the other side, Ranma was pushing through Akira's and guards with similar non-lethal if painful methods.

One akira, about fourteen and proving insanely resistant to the electrical shock of Melissa's rod held off the soldier for several seconds.

"Ha!" the girl shouted. "You can't bring down Niya San the..."

"Out of the way!" one of the normal guards shouted as he let loose with a barrage automatic rifle fire that slammed into the girl's back clearing the way for him to target Melissa.

At least, if said soldier didn't just angrily empty her climp into the man.

Ranma, finished with his enemies at about the same time, came up to the side of the shot girl and caught her falling.

"I am unbreakable..." the girl whispered before the light faded out of her eyes and Ranma shut them closed with a bitter frown.

Turning her over, he found the girl had been shot more than fifteen times in that short burst. Almost none had penetrated to a dangerous level, the girl's skin was almost like kevlar, but all it had taken was one.

"Bastards," Melissa snapped bitterly.

*****

"Ooops," Goshichi said.

"I told you!" Musan shouted, looking about distractedly.

*****

Elsewhere, a sudden and brilliant display of energy opened up in a wide courtyard, drawing all manner of attention it's way. It held there for several seconds, a heavenly, radiant phenomena that accompanied an odd sound like the singing of a multitude of voices.

Several akira girls gathered around, watching wide-eyed and wondering as a smaller number of more conventional guards held their arms at the ready, feeling oddly ashamed of themselves.

Out of the blissfully serene energy came a blonde young man diving forward and leaping ahead of where the weapons were aimed. Far late, several sprays of gunfire struck the cement at the base of the portal.

Later than that, shards of ice slipped through the air, missing their target by a full foot.

Deimosu moved through the gathered akiras, all of whom had grown closer to the energy than was smart in their curiousity, like a reaper through wheat, being careful to merely incapacitate them as he moved.

He was approaching two of the last when the gunfire opened up again, cutting through the last two girls and driving the demi-god aside.

Deimosu watched from where he landed as the two girls he'd been about to merely paralyze danced under the bullets of their Mistress's own guards and roared in anger as their bodies crumpled.

A crackling burst of lightning thrust out from him and branched to catch the firearm packing guards, blowing the men off their feet and leaving them falling as charred corpses.

*****

"It seems we have intruders," a smooth, even voice said with a smirk as she turned toward a monitor.

Nimu was stunned as the smile on her Mistress's voice faded instantly on looking at the monitor. An obsessively greedy expression washed over her face as she looked at the man on the screen, and turned into an ugly sneer as he she looked to the woman.

"Well, well, my darling has finally come to find me," she said with an unbalanced tone unlike anything Nimu had heard from her before.

Fortunately, that monitor seemed to be distracting the Mistress from the others. With the impression of coming to the woman's side in support, she moved up on the monster's side and surreptitiously shut off one of the monitors showing a Ni and a Yon trying to break into the medical vaults where their "supplements" were kept.

Sanya looked up confused and then toward Nimu who gave a nod toward the normal guard in the room. The younger girl looked aghast and turned back to Nimu to confirm the instruction. When the young woman repeated the order, she swallowed nervously and cracked her knuckles.

Across the way, Ichi mouthed silently, "for our sisters".

"Maybe there's a way for you to gain forgiveness, Nimu," the woman said darkly. "Bring me that man, alive."

As she spoke, Sanya darted forward slamming into the guard and sending him hard into the wall.

The man dropped his gun to the ground and then it to darted across the room, into Nimu's hand.

"Not today, Mistress," Nimu said, firing out with her gun.

"Ooo, telekinesis," the woman said as she casually dodged aside. "How long have you been hiding that?"

Sanya moved in from the other side, wielding a baton she'd stripped from the unconscious guard. The girl swung out and her enemy easily dodged, swinging out with a length of what seemed to be simple ribbon, but which wrapped around the young girl's legs like steel.

Nimu shouted out as Sanya was swung across the room brutally and leaped past her target firing inaccurately to catch the girl before she could land wrong.

"And you've been training your sisters," the woman said, pulling out her ribbon to full length. "We've tried this before Nimu. Did you think this was going to go any better?"

Nimu and Sanya looked to the door behind them and backed out through it quickly as their Mistress followed cackling madly.

"What are we doing?" Sanya asked desperately as they turned a corner.

"Buying time," Nimu said. "They're robbing the supplements, if we can last long enough for them to get away..."

Sanya nodded.

*****

Deimosu was an unending blur of destruction, nowhere near as precise and professional as his mother and Sergeant Mao were being in their own assault.

He was not being careful more than that he was taking the time to identify whether or not the room he was heading for had what he wanted before tearing it to pieces.

The girls that came up in front of him he struck down relentlessly but softly. He was less calm about the gun-wielding men that came into his path.

Finally, he was standing out in front of the door Yonjuu had described, a refrigerated unit with an electronic security lock.

Of course, all he had to do was rip the door off.

He was moving to do so when a club of some sort whipped down the hall past him.

"Oh, I don't think so," a sinister voice said, the edge of cackle just behind the words.

He turned to see a tall, slender woman in her early thirties staring down the hallway at him twirling a ribbon dangerously.

"Rhythmic gymnastics martial arts," he said with narrowed eyes as he took in the woman's shape. "I think my mother told me about you."

"Your mother," the woman said, sounding surprised. "Let me guess, a red-haired slut of a girl?"

And with that, Deimosu charged in.

The ribbon lashed out and Deimosu caught sight of the threads of steel worked through the weapon. As it came in, he let loose with a discharge of electricity, watching as it slammed down the ribbon into the evil woman's body, disrupting her motion just long enough for him to reach her and break her neck.

There, all he had to now was get the medicine for Yonjuu and leave her with someone who could figure out how to reproduce it.

He was walking out of the facility with a bag full of vials as the loudspeaker came on in the building behind him.

*****

Ranma and Melissa pushed on through the hallways. The guards hadn't yet seemed to be alert to their presence, and as they came up behind patrols rushing onward, it was easy to incapacitate them completely.

They didn't wait for any of the guardsmen to become trigger happy, taking out the odd gunman that showed up for every five akira girls. The Akiras were oddly more dangerous, with unpredictable abilties poorly directed, sometimes more a danger to themselves than anything else.

"How many is that so far?" Melissa asked, picking up a new pistol from one of the guards.

Just in case she ran out of ammo.

"Fifteen," Ranma said. "Including the girl we couldn't save."

They turned a corner and found a large room with a plethora of strange medical equipment including a large tube, currently empty of any subject. But both recognized the sensory deprivation gear that the more unethical sorts used to test psychics, including the Whispered.

"No whispered," Ranma said.

As they determined that, a pair of girls came running back out onto a platform above them. Both readied for a fight, but it seemed the girls already had one.

Ranma's eyes widened as he saw the woman that followed the girls out, whip cracking out at them and clubs flying out trying to catch one of the two girls, both of whom seemed at least moderately better trained than any other of the girls in this facility.

As the clubs flew out, the oldest of the two girls gestured and the clubs seemed to redirect in mid-air back towards the woman that had first thrown them.

"Kodachi?" he said in surprise.

Kodachi dodged the redirected clubs and smirked as she had to dodge aside from the clumsy strike. She went to slash out with her ribbon only to find it tangled up in a belt at the hand of the older girl.

The woman snarled briefly before Sanya lashed out at the momentarily immobilized woman, sending her flying across the room and landing hard into the wall.

"You know her?" Melissa asked.

The answer came as Ranma leaped out toward Kodachi as she tried to recover and slammed her against the wall.

"This is your doing?" he demanded angrily.

"Ah, Ranma-darling," the woman said harshly, past injuries. "I know you couldn't stay away for long."

"What are you doing to these girls Kodachi?!" Ranma demanded.

"OhhhHOOHOHOHOHOHOHO!" Kodachi cackled, a sound cut off as a small length of metal lashed across the room and slammed through her throat.

Ranma and Melissa turned toward the twenty-year old aki..no, she obviously wasn't just an akira, the young warrior.

"For my sisters," she said proudly.

Almost immediately a loudspeaker opened up around them

*****

"My, my, my," A familiar voice cackled. "You just cost me two bodies. I shall have to make a replacement of those soon. Nimu and Yaku will do of course."

"OHhhhHOHOHOHOHO!" she cackled.

"Did you really think it was that easy to kill the Black Rose, girls?" Kodachi said. "The Ichi uprising at least managed to kill seven of me. You've only managed two."

"I can see the confusion on your faces below," Kodachi said to the people she was watching on the monitor. "What is going on, how is this possible? Truth be told, I've been waiting a long time to...explain matters. Yes, I beleive the term is monologuing."

"Well, first," Kodachi said. "The girls, you're thinking 'how can they be clones'. I can hear you over the microphones, Ranma-dear. Yes, cloning does not work, you just end up with a useless mess of biological trash. A person in image but not truth. However, were you aware that a woman was born with as many as two million follicles that could possibly mature into eggs?"

"Most of those die by the time we reach puberty, and of the hundreds of thousands that remain, only four hundred or so will successfully mature. Of those, only a rare few will be fertilized."

"That is, unless of course, you can come up with a process to...harvest those follicles, to mature them artificially," Kodachi noted. "Then all you have to do is inseminate them with some rather...choice material and wallah."

"And I may not be fully whispered, like those born on December 24, 1984 between a specific period lasting only minutes," Kodachi said. "But I am still partially whispered. I just have to readminister those same drugs again and the enlightenment comes. How to breed powers into my daughters. How to create what I needed."

"Just a dose and invention comes whenever I want," Kodachi snikcered. "Of course, I do have the most important part of being a whispered all the time. Your son is just precious by the way, Ranma-darling. He's invaded another of my facilities just to save the life of one of my soldiers, so noble."

"Oh yes, the most important thing," Kodachi noted. "Resonance."

"Resonance which lets me merge over into the minds of anyone able to contact my own mind," Kodachi said. "Which lets me insure that no one will ever see the last of me. I'll always be able to find or make a daughter with just the right touch of mental ability to hold my soul."

"So, revel in the fact that you've succeeded in freeing your sisters here," Nimu. "And rest assured, that I have all I need to make sure I have more. I suppose I could destroy both the facilities, but I much rather know you're all out there and aware of what I am doing. It is...poetic."

"OhhhHOOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!!" the voice cackled loudly before the communication was cut off.

*******************

Paisphage should translate to "child-eater" I think


	21. Homecomings

"This feels a bit like overkill," the intelligence operator said. "Sending six of our SRT Operators to eliminate one man. I'm sure you'll be seeing your Sgt. Sagara back here soon."

Captain Testarossa nodded quietly as she looked down at the folder on her desk. It was the training report from the newly appointed J-K Regional Operations Coordinator for Psyche Division, one Ranma Saotome.

**Sagara, Sousuke: Sergeant  
I've made progress on training the Sergeant to access his chi. As of now, he can produce a fluctuation in his chi that can be observed with the proper gear, and once managed a barely visible aura. **

**This should translate into at least being reliably able to produce a battle aura in the Arbalest, though I suspect he will still require an emotional high to achieve full power. It is unfortunately difficult to maintain both an emotional high and the meditative mindset required for chi control. **

**I've started Sagara on some basic chi-use exercises for speed and strength enhancement. Unfortunately, I am consistantly having to re-clarify the limits of a particular exercise, Soldier-boy is very clever at finding alternate method of achieving the same goal. Unfortunately, the goal is often only a means to focus one on the method. **

**His previous training has focused him on the end goal and avoiding target fixation on any one particular method. I had the opposite problem as a student, fixating on the instructed method even when it was impossible. Neither manner of thought is impossible to get past, however. **

**I've explained to him the differences in thinking required for these exercises and tried to define the end goal as the ability to be acquired rather than the traditional "take the stone from my hand" style kung fu sensei method. **

**At this stage in his training, if the lambda driver operates as I suspect, then he'll find it usable, just not to it's full potential. He is still at the very least a year away from practical chi use without enhancing tools or devices. **

**As such, I spent most of the last lesson telling him how to disrupt another person's control. If he does not have full control himself, it is best if he focus instead on weakening his opponent's resolve. I don't know how well it will work given what the dossier on this Gauron person says about his personality, but any port in a storm.**

Hopefully, Sagara would be able to find a way to work around his limited use of the lambda driver's energy well enough to take on Gauron in the enemy's own suit. Or, better yet, strike without Gauron being able to reach the suit.

"I hope you're right," Tessa said.

"Captain," the intelligence officer said, eyeing the folder himself and quite obviously wondering what it said. "If I may, what were in the briefcase Sagara brought in with him?"

"Sensory equipment," the Captain said simply.

*****

Four men and a woman in Mithril SRT uniforms walked along the tarmac of the Indian Ocean Fleet's headquarters. They carried with them dufflebags holding their clothes and a few personal oddiments.

They were an assorted bunch, three were certainly American. One was a loudmouthed man named Jackson with dreadlocks and an accent that came out of the streets. Another was a burly man named Andy with a hick's speech and a cowboy hat. The third, Bill, wore lieutenant's bars and sported a stylish handlebar mustache.

The other two operators were an older man named Baptiste and a woman that the others referred to as Gray. Baptiste might also have been American, but he could just as easily been English or otherwise. Gray spoke with a definite European accent and, judging by her rank, was obviously the second in command under Bill.

"I don't like this," Baptiste said. "Why are they pulling so many of us out just to say we offed one man?"

"Oh quit worrying," Jackson said with a smirk. "Just be glad for an easy job for once."

Their leader was silent as they walked up into the transport plane that already carried their Arm-Slaves.

Most of them were surprised to find a teenager already sitting in the plane and waiting quietly.

"What's this?" Andy asked, frowning suspiciously.

"This is Sergeant Sousuke Sagara," Gray said. "He's had previous experience with the target and the area, so he's been given us on loan from the Pacific Fleet."

"They're making kids sergeants now?" Jackson called out, offended. He moved around to lean his head into Sagara's face and thrust a lolipop at him. "Hey kid, want some candy?"

"Stow it, Jackson," Bill said, not adding anything about Sagara's credentials.

"I'm just fooling around, sir," Jackson said, standing up to walk around to Sagara. "Hey, we'll be working together so let's be friends. What do you say, Tom Sawyer?"

"Sit down and shut up," Grey said, pushing the irritating guy aside as Sagara quietly spit the lolipop out of his mouth. "I'm sorry he's being so rude."

"It's not a problem," Sagara said.

Gray looked down at the amulet he wore around his neck and furrowed her eyebrows. The small crystal looked out of place given what she'd read in the soldier's dossier.

"What's that?" she asked.

"It is a training tool," Sagara said, simply.

"So, you used to live in this area, right?" Gray asked. "That you know the area inside and out."

"Affirmative," Sousuke noted.

"Then we'll be counting on your advice in this operation," she said.

She reached out to shake his hand, but another of her comrades seemed to object as he slammed his foot between them.

"Listen you little fart," he said. "This is our mission, and we don't intend on asking your advice. Got it?"

"Okay, settle down," Bill said sharply. "We have a few pieces of information to layout."

He waited for them to calm down before speaking.

"First, our Arm-Slave units have been installed with a new sensory equipment," he said. "It is supposed to be able to register the energy signature of a new class of experimental AS system. Sagara's machine is fitted with our version of the same system, so we'll be calibrating sensors based on his machine immediately after drop."

"Damn Pacifics, always getting the newest toys," Andy muttered. "Bunch of spoiled brats."

"Do I have to repeat myself?" Bill asked, waiting for Andy to settle down. "Good. Now, the second thing. Apparently, this new system requires a lot of focus and concentration to use effectively. If we want to get around it, we'll have to attack the enemy's mindset. And that's not going to be easy given the pysch profile we have on the target."

"What kind of system is dependent on the operator's mental state?" Grey wondered.

"Trust me, if it's the same system I've heard rumors about," Bill said. "We've got our hands full on this one. The very fact they're giving us information and sensors that seem to be built directly to counter it makes the hair on my neck stand out."

"Wow, this is so cool," Kyoko said as she set her bags down in the entry way and turning about to look at the wide, landscaped grounds, camera clicking.

Several of those pictures ended up with a posing Naiki in them.

Kaname, Shinji and Mizuki were similarly impressed with the island's beauty.

Akane Saotome, dressed in a naval t-shirt and work-slacks stepped out into the doorway to watch the teenagers gawk with a smile. Behind her, Kurz was speaking to the woman's husband.

"First trip to Okinawa, I guess?" she asked Eija as the calmer girl set aside her bags.

"No, we stopped here for a few months while Mother sought property in Tokyo," Eija said.

"You were so close, huh?" Akane said, shaking her head.

Akane glanced back toward Kurz and her husband and then turned to Eija curiously. She wasn't going to ask the kids, but there was some curiosity on her part.

Akane'd been out on the water with her ship dealing with a small fleet of pirates that had taken residence on one of the local islands. Twelve battle converted civilian vessels of various sizes against one Japanese cruiser with its complement, an AS and two ASW helicopters retro-fitted as pirate hunters with minigun emplacements on either side of the craft.

It hadn't been a battle. It had been a mop up.

As it ended, her captain received orders for her to be granted leave, despite having just returned from a vacation. And then, quite coincidentally, Ranma called her asking if she and Ryuu could watch some kids for a week or so. With special focus on protecting her own kids and one other.

Said kids arrive, not with Ranma, but a mercenary who was doing a good job of looking very civilian. Akane and Ryuu had seen too many people like him during the worst days of the Chinese Civil War not to recognize what he was.

Ranma had contacts apparently.

She looked back to the children investigating her home, where they'd stay for the next week, and shrugged it off for now. Her own children, the oldest of the two being ten years old, were still finishing chores but she'd seen their faces in the window a couple of times.

Masaru had something of a pouty look as he took in the "horde of girls" that looked to be taking over his family home, discounting Shinji as a "nerd". He was still in that "cootie" phase which both amused and annoyed Akane thoroughly.

Izumi, the younger sister, had heard that some of the girls were martial artists though, and was eager to see if she could get them to show her some stuff. Quite a hyperactive and talkative one, she was. Rather strange, Akane thought, given that didn't think of either her or Ryuu as talkative or hyperactive.

Some who'd known them both in youth would at least partially disagree with that self-assessment.

Akane was about to walk out to collect the teens and take them to the guest rooms, when an unexpected visitor arrived. She froze quietly at the sight.

A tall, stately woman with dark red hair, well on to her fifties now, though it took a close look to see that. She walked onto the property, entirely self-assured despite not having received an invitiation to arrive at the home of her children by adoption and marriage.

"Oh," Nodoka said as she looked about at the children. "Am I interrupting some school event?"

"No, these aren't students," Akane said. "I'm watching some kids for...for a friend of mine."

"Saotome-san," Eija said, walking up to her host. "Who is this?"

"This is the clan matriarch," Akane said.

"Come now, Akane-chan," Nodoka said. "Don't be so formal, call me 'Mother' now, I keep telling you."

"Then...your my other grandmother?" Eija asked, recognizing the implications of the name and position and unaware of the dangers involved here.

"Excuse me," Nodoka said as Akane flinched. "Could you repeat that?"

The naval officier had an urge to pull Eija aside now, and probably would have quite aggressively had she been younger, but it was too late now.

Why hadn't Ranma warned them about this?

"I am Eija Satomi," she said. "My mother is Ranma Sat.."

"Ranma is your mother?!" Nodoka repeated aghast.

*****

Sousuke's mind drifted back in time towards his childhood in Helmjastad.

A japanese boy sent as assassin by the Soviets into the deserts, and ending up joining them. Early on, before he'd adapted from the Soviet ice to the Helmjastad sand, he'd remembered falling behind while the unit walked from one point to another.

At one point, he'd even fallen into the dust, expecting to be left behind. He'd been lucky, however. Another boy in the unit, the only one of an age similar to Sousuke's, came back to help him up and support him.

A melancholy memory, something that the homecoming had stirred up. Or perhaps before that...when Kaname had asked him about his childhood.

A voice snapped Sousuke out of his reverie.

"Hold up," Bill said, looking down the hill at a pair of trucks carting cloth covered loads further into the desert. "Looks like they're moving quicker than we thought."

"Have you caught sight of the target yet?" Gray asked, bringing up her glasses.

"I count six savages total," Baptiste said. "And one model I've never seen before."

"No, there's one more," Andy noted. "On the truck in the back."

Sousuke scanned back along the two truck caravan to get a look at the eighth AS and gasped as he found the scarred face of Gauron staring back at him.

It wasn't much longer before they'd withdrawn to another site to plan the attack, a simple ambush, which was now going off despite Sousuke's objections.

In all five ASes, the guage on their recently installed sensors raised slowly as the crystals at their core reacted to the increased chi coming into the area, above and beyond what was coming from Sousuke's dormant lambda driver.

However, some of the others paid more attention.

"I've got an increased reading on the lambda sensor," Gray noted quickly.

"Are you sure that's not Sergeant Samurai's machine fluctuating again?" Jackson asked with more than a trace of dismissal.

"No," Gray said. "This is a steady rise. Minimal yet, started when the convoy hit the detection limits we found for the Arbalest dormant."

Bill frowned as he considered the new information.

"I recommend we pull out," Sousuke said. "If we know that Gauron's machine is active, then we can assume he's waiting for us."

"Oh, let's just forget about it," Jackson said. "I'm not worried about some voodoo machine."

"Are we here for a job or not?" Andy demanded, let's just get on with this."

"We need to pull back," Sousuke said. "We are not geared for taking on Gauron's machine."

"Isn't that what you're here for, boy?" Baptiste asked seriously.

Sousuke was about to protest, but couldn't.

It was, indeed, why he and the Arbalest had been sent on this machine, even more so than his knowledge of the area.

His job was to counter the enemy lambda driver if it showed up.

And it had. Unfortunately...he wasn't ready for a full fight, and he knew it.

"Shifting the plan," Bill said. "We're going to spring the ambush, Sousuke sit back and wait for Gauron to show up and intercept him."

"We're missing the unidentified model as well," Baptiste noted.

"It would be better to..."

"That's an order, Sergeant," Bill said.

"...Affirmative..." Sousuke noted.

"Then we go...on cue," the leader said.

****

"You told me there was something we had to talk about involving these kids of your friend," Ryuu said. "You never mentioned that your friend was Ranma."

He sounded a bit...suspicious was the only word that Akane could come up with.

"It's complicated," Akane said. "I mean, she wasn't even telling Kasumi who she was. I wasn't sure..."

"You weren't sure h...wait did you say she?" Ryuu asked.

"Yes, I did," Akane said. "Last I heard she's been stuck for sixteen or seventeen years."

Ryuu immediately seemed to relax as he heard that bit of news, though he tried to hide it. Akane smirked lightly at the reserved show of concern for Ranma's reappearance.

"You were worried I'd run off with Ranma, weren't you," the woman teased.

"It...crossed my mind," Ryuu said.

"That's almost sweet," Akane said. "Maybe I should look around for a heavy object and shout 'you don't own me' or something else."

"So, Ranma's their mother," Ryuu said, changing the topic as he flushed slightly. "Where's Nod...Mother?"

"She watching the kids," Akane said, moving to the window and watching out into the yard to see where the mercenary was standing guard. "She hasn't talked to Eija or Naiki since the introduction."

As she spoke, the green-haired girl walked into the building looking about cautiously, and then over her shoulder with a grimace.

"Hey, Lady," Naiki said.

"You can call me Auntie Akane, if you want," Akane said with a bit of a tone.

"I'd rather not," Naiki said. "Outside Mom and siblings, most of my family seem to be...jerks."

"All right, Akane-san, then," Akane said, crossing her arms.

"What do you need?" Ryuu asked, demanded really.

"Need to make a phone call?" Naiki said. "Do you mind?"

"Calling your Mother?" Ryuu asked.

"Nah, somebody else," Naiki said, she looked back outside. "Is that bitch really my Mom's mom?"

"What's she doing?" Akane asked.

"Nothing," Naiki said. "She's not even looking at Eija or me. It's like she just looks right through us. Like we're not there."

****

"So, did everyone pack their swimsuits?" Kurz asked with a leer that was earning him a cold look from a Lt Commander in the house overlooking the area.

Fortunately for him, Akane wasn't as reactionary as she used to be.

"Of course," Mizuki declared proudly. "And wait until you see it. It'll knock your socks off."

"Oh, I'll bet," Kurz said with a wide smile.

"Cut it out, Weber," Kaname snapped at the perverted German. "Behave yourself."

"I am behaving myself, baby," Kurz said, winking at Kaname with a pistol shot hand gesture. "This is how Kurz Weber behaves."

"Oh please," Kaname said crossing her arms and glaring, distracted only as Eija came back from her failed attempt to attract her human grandmother's attention.

*****

Sousuke watched as the squad moved into action with precision and skill. His orders were to wait for Gauron to reveal himself, and that's what he was doing: watching, waiting and fretting as the seconds ticked by.

Things were moving smoothly as the first element drew out the savages. Baptiste came down in front of the trucks, blocking their passage, and then the savages started dropping.

One, two, three, and then the unidentified red AS came out of the hills on the other side of the convoy. Obviously it had been shadowing the trucks and waiting for this attack to come.

Sousuke was eager to intercede, but this wasn't his responsibility.

He grimaced as the red AS leaped in with an impressive level of speed and agility to face Baptiste. One of the other M-9s, he thought it was Andy, peeled off from the conflict with the poorly matched savages to join the fight against the red AS with Baptiste.

As the mecha made a charge to slam its monomolecular cutter into Baptiste's machine, the second M-9 shoved it off track. Instead of a fierce stab into the torso, and the pilot cockpit, the red AS only managed a slash through the hip of Baptiste's M-9.

"Damn it!" Baptiste called out. "My left hip actuators blown!"

"I've got you covered," Andy's voice called as he faced off against the unknown AS and its pilot. "This guy's mine."

And then came the moment that Sousuke'd been waiting for as the rear truck exploded into a pillar of sand to reveal a towering white AS.

"That'll be Gauron!" Bill shouted. "Clear the area! Sousuke go!"

"Welcome to the party, Mithril," a raucous and sinister voice declared over the open channels. "We've been expecti..."

He was cut off from his coming monologue as Sousuke entered the battle, forcing Gauron to dodge aside from his pursuit of the M-9s.

"Well! Kashim," he called out. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Why not?" Sousuke asked, thinking of some of what Ranma had instructed him on disrupting a chi-user's concentration. "Is that steel plate in your head shorting out your brain?"

"Ooo, impressive Kashim," Gauron said with a chuckle. "I assume your people have been doing some brain wave research. Are you trying to...'unsettle' me?"

The readings on Sousuke's crystal scanner started to flair as Gauron brought the lambda-driver online and active.

"AI, activate lambda-driver now!" Sousuke declared.

Behind the lambda-driver equipped ASes, Bill and his team made short work of the remaining savages and turned to support Andy and Baptiste against their enemy. The pilot was obviously skilled as he turned his mecha blade to work and managing to lay out damaging strikes on his opponents while keeping out of reach himself.

The red AS, a new Shadow, was more manueverable than the M-9s, but didn't have their armor and protection. A situation quite similar to the old duels of American versus Japanese airplanes.

Unfortunately, the Shadow's ambush had been expected and now it found itself in the M-9's fight: one of endurance rather than finesse.

"Looks like you've lost this fight, Gauron," Sousuke said as his lambda field clashed with Gauron's.

The fields flared brightly before erupting and pushing each of the machines away from each other.

Indeed, it was beginning to appear that his concern was unfounded.

"We've got them on the run!" Jackson called out.

"You've improved, Kashim," Gauron said unconcerned. "A consistant lambda-field. Perhaps you've had a little chemical aid generating the right brain waves?"

"Chemical," Sousuke repeated.

"Oops," Gauron sneered as he circled Sousuke. "I probably shouldn't have said that. Someone's going to be upset with me."

He dashed in slashing with his blade as Sousuke dodged aside in his mecha and retaliated with a strike of his own, blocked by the limbs of Gauron's mecha.

"The merchandise," Gray shouted over the link. "It's a warhead!"

"No problem," Bill said calmly. "As soon as we're finished here, we evac out with it and nobody's the wiser."

Nobody was prepared for the arrival of two more machines.

Warping in out of nowhere, a green mecha with haunched over semi-theropod style posture and a long balancing tail came between Gauron's AS and the Arbalest. The slick machine was constructed out of some strange alloy that looked almost biological. However, it was also covered in small cracks that were very obviously not part of the design.

Near the other five active ASes on the battle, a second machine, bluish and shimmering, built out of oval-shaped body limbs that remained humanoid without coming close to being human. Like the other new AS, it was showing obvious battle damage that had been hurriedly patched up.

"Damn it, where'd these guys come from?" Jackson demanded as he turned around to face the oval-shaped mecha.

As he did so, the red Shadow took advantage of the break in formation to slip in and slash through the side of Jackson's machine. The dreadlocked soldier watched as the cutter came through his cockpit and slashed mere feet away from his body.

As this happened, the bluish mecha deployed an array of extensions similar to the arbalest's lambda-spines. The array had once been all curves and elegance, but at least one element was cut short now and, as it powered up a field of its own, dangerous looking shorts rippled along its body.

"The hell?" Bill said. "Another lambda-driver? It's not registering on the sensors."

The green mecha, meanwhile slashed out at Gauron with an arch of reddish energy even as its tail whipped out against Sousuke, driving him back.

The younger mercenary responded by slashing out with his knife, striking down through the tail's mechanics. When it rebounded off a rippling red-field, he realized that this machine was also armed with something like a lambda driver. Engaging his own lambda driver again, he stabbed outward again.

"What do we have here?" Gauron asked as he leaped over the slashing energy construct and came down, surrounded by a lambda-field.

The red-energy field desperately clashed with the white fields around the Arbalest and the Venom. The field about the unknown mecha, aged and damaged, slowly crackled and buckled inward before the energy erupted around the three machines.

Meanwhile, Jackson was quickly ejecting from his ruined mecha and watching below as the new mecha rose its arms calling a nimbus of blue light out over the mecha in front of it. Whatever the mecha had been planning to do, however, was unsuccessful as the shorts on the machine erupted into a burst of blue fire.

In the wake, Gauron found the remaining M-9's gone, along with his merchandise. He tried to move to follow, but the Venom had overheated again, and refused to go any further.

Above him, the pilot of the red Shadow looked about the battle field. There was practically nothing left of the bluish mecha that had accidentally self-destructed. Of the pilot there was only a semi-identifiable body, perhaps a man, but it was hard to be sure from what was left.

The other pilot had apparently successfully ejected before the Arbalest and Venom had practically obliterated the AS itself.

Baptiste and Jackson, bereft of their machines, sat in the truck, guarding their unconscious and unintended captive.

He seemed a rather young man, maybe in his mid-twenties, with dark hair, red eyes and a trio of red marks on his face.

Grimacing, and not realizing that they had left their target behind practically helpless, the M-9s made a hasty withdrawl into the hills.

*****

"Miss Satomi, this is the Immigration Department," a young demoness noted as she spoke to the caller over the phone. "To contact Lady Persephone, you would need to contact the Avalon Providers. I can't give you access to chief administrators."

She paused and waited.

Jarinta had been born less than a hundred years ago and had lived in heaven pretty much the entire time. She lived a rather ordinary life, hadn't been to Earth more than once or two and basically made a quiet life as a phone-operator connecting demons or gods to relatives that lived in the other side.

It was one of the few open channels either side allowed, even as hostility was mostly fading between the leadership and general population and she felt more than proud to be helping that link between the two nations. It was something she often told her one child, currently going through a first incarnation in an Earth high school.

"Yes, I'm aware that this is the only number Nifelheim residents are allowed to contact," the woman said. "I do see that Lady Persephone has included you as family, but I can't connect you. You could ask your sis..."

She stopped as a shudder went through her body and her eyes glazed over. The goddess next to her, turned toward her in concern, about to ask what was wrong until he saw the blood trickling out of her mouth just before she collapsed into her desk-station.

"Help!" he called out. "Something's wrong over here! We need some healers."

It was less than three minutes before a god and goddess appeared in the office and rushed to the girl's side. However, their rush died as they pulled Jarinta down to the ground and looked her over.

"She's a doublet," one of them said, crossing himself in a rather human fashion.

*****

"Hello?" Naiki said over the phone. "Hello? Are you there? Damn it. Heaven just hung up on me." Sighing bitterly, she set the phone down.

"I'll deal with it later," she decided as she walked away.

*****

The night had been a extended battle as Helmjastad seemed to empty its gates into the desert to strike out at the small group of Mithril operators trying to get a warhead out of the country and to a place where they could safely evac it.

It hadn't been until Sousuke directed them down into the hills that they achieved any sort of a break. It was then that they found a secured location to stop and compare notes for a moment.

And, as Sousuke stepped out of his machine, hidden in the shadow of a rock overhang, he saw their prisoner for the first time. The red marks on his face were unmistakable.

A demon.

"Double check his bonds," Sousuke said immediately.

"Are you about to go on another worry binge, Samurai Boy?" Andy asked.

"Quiet, Andy," Gray said. "Sousuke, do you know something about this?"

Sousuke thought for a moment how to proceed, but he certainly didn't have the authority to make the decision to reveal exactly what the prisoner was.

"The specifics are classified," he said. "I can, however say that he belongs to one of two...organizations that have substantial resources."

"Substantial resources," Bill said. "I've never seen those models they brought in, but they looked like they'd been in mothballs for decades."

"I concur," Sousuke said. "I am also aware of systems in place that would make either side's leadership hesitate to engage in such a risky affair."

He'd heard about the doublet system independently from Chidori-san and Satomi-san, each worried that he might find himself in a fight with a god or demon and end up killing them. He'd reported that to Tessa and gathered from the Captain's response that she'd gotten something similar out of Naiki's mental "babbling".

"In other words, this one's probably off the reservation," Andy said.

"Affirmative," Sousuke noted, looking at the demon with more than a hint of disdain.

Slowly, he noticed the man's eyes fluttering open before they snapped wide and he twisted his head about.

"Humans," he said surprised. "How did you...?"

And so much for classified, Sousuke noted with a sigh.

The Mithril agents looked up at each other for a moment at the man's first word. Gray and Bill looked over toward Sousuke.

"Before you start thinking about trying anything," Sousuke warned pistol out. "I a familiar with members of both your people and the others. If you try anything, you'll regret it."

It was at least half a bluff, since he wasn't sure whether or not he'd recognize or be able to notice every possible ability a demon could manifest, but hopefully it worked.

Of course, if it did, that probably meant a low-class demon.

"Where's MacDanan?" he asked looking about.

"If you're talking about your partner," Andy said. "He was fried when his AS went off like a firecracker."

The demon stared out at them shocked.

"He...died," the man said. "You saw the body?"

"That happens in a fight," Baptiste noted.

"Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions," Bill said. "You're going to answer them. If not, one of my men is going to put you out of our misery."

"You can't do that," the demon protested.

"And why not?" Bill asked.

"If I die, then so will someone else," he said sharply.

"What does that mean?" Andy asked.

"The system I spoke of before," Sousuke noted. "If a member of one group or the other dies, then a kill-signal of some sort is sent to a member of the other. This includes families and civilian support."

"How does a human know about the doublet system," the demon asked.

"I told you, I have encountered individuals on both sides," Sousuke informed him.

"Perhaps you'd like to ask the questions, Sergeant Sagara?" Bill asked a bit irritably.

"My apologies, sir, I did not mean to overstep myself," Sousuke noted.

"Sir, it might be best to have Sagara do the interrogation," Gray noted.

Bill seemed to think about it for a moment, but then turned back toward the captured demon.

"Who are you?" Bill asked.

Sousuke bent down, gun in hand and ready as he started to draw a circle in the ground, another bluff. He knew nothing about seals, aside from the fact that it was what demons and gods did instead of killing to take an opponent out long term. And even that he only knew from overheard snippets of conversation.

Enough to know that there was something to do with circles in a seal.

The action did draw attention, however from the demon, who seemed to look up toward Sousuke a bit concerned. The presence of a human that knew so much about demons and gods was dangerous, there was no telling what this "Sagara" would do.

The demon dropped back into his mind briefly and called up the one spell even low level Rakshasha could cast without words: the calling up of ancestral form.

The scales grew swiftly over his form as his muscles strengthened and the zip ties ripped away from his limbs. The nails lengthened into claws and...a wad of hot lead ripped through his shoulder followed by a rough barrage of physical impacts that tore apart his concentration before he could get his balance.

"I said, you'd regret if you tried anything," Sousuke snapped, bringing his gun to the demon's head. "Drop it."

"You have friends amongst the Gods and Demons, human," the demon said. "You won't risk them by killing me, and I doubt you know any seals."

"I said I was familiar with your people," Sousuke said, dramatically cocking the trigger. "I said nothing about friends."

"Tzelanit," the demon said quickly, shifting back to a bruised human-seeming form. "Demon of Pride, 3rd Class, Rakshasha recruit."

More than a couple of the Mithril soldiers gave Sousuke a long stare as he continued to lean on their apparently inhuman captive.

"And what were you doing here," Bill said, electing not to try and pronounce the name.

"The carapace," Tzelanit said quickly. "We wanted one of your human carapaces."

"What's a Carapace?" Bill asked.

"The machines," the demon noted. "We wanted...to make an impression on the higher ups."

"They wanted either the Arbalest or Gauron's arm-slave," Sousuke concluded, feeling an intense amount of disdain for this demon.

To risk one's own life on such a foolish notion was bad enough, but as a demon, he was risking the lives of a civilian in addition. That was inexcusable.

He stepped up away from the demon and let Andy and Jackson re-secure him, with a few extra zip-ties this time.

"Sergeant!" Bill said, calling Sousuke over. "What's going on, and I don't want to hear 'classified'. We're in a need to know situation now. Tell me about 'demons' and 'gods'."

Sousuke looked around and breathed a deep breath.

"I know only a limited amount," Sousuke said.

"More than I know," Bill said. "Are these things...aliens?"

"Negative," Sousuke said. "Terrestrial, survivors of pre-human civilizations"

"And your relationship?" Bill asked.

"There is...a girl," Sousuke said. "She is a goddess and her sister is half-demon. My regular assignment is as bodyguard to them and one other."

"So, we have non-hostile relations," Bill said.

"For now," Sousuke noted.

"Anything I should know?" the lieutenant asked.

"Gag him," Sousuke suggested.

"Are you afraid he'll cast a spell or something?" Bill asked disdainfully.

"Affirmative," Sousuke noted seriously.

*****

Somewhere between the worlds, a fortress sat at the top of hill in the center of a wide empty plain. One of the few places where servants of Nifelheim and Asgard intermixed freely and worked together on a daily basis.

After the last four thousand years, it was itself almost a completely separate power in the conflict between the two. The original source of demonic and godly defectors and intermarriages, a product of many centuries of daily interaction with the other species, it was certainly a symbol of what Hecate saw as the corruption of her kind.

And when she first thought of taking the system out, so long ago, she'd started to work out a plan to do so. And the first step was building herself a mole.

Which had been a delicate procedure.

It couldn't be a god or goddess, because her plan meant that she'd bee discovered before it was completed. And then they'd check on her associates.

Which had meant turning a demon.

That had been the first time she'd realized she had to work with the other side. It had been a...disgusting...development.

It still was, but now, some thousand years later, here she sat on Earth and waiting. Her mole had only a few more months to finish his task and then she could send her leashed human attack dog in to eliminate the doublet system, and then everything would fall quite literally into place.

She didn't realize that her "leashed attack dog" was accelerating matters yet, and that her mole no longer had a matter of months to finish, but something closer to weeks.

*****

"It was really nice of you to let us stay here for a week, Akane-San," Kyoko said cheerfully as she clicked a picture.

They were sitting around several tables put together, not an infrequent occurrence when there was a school event going on. The man of the house, strangely enough, was the one in the kitchen, though he had help this time from Kaname and Eija.

"Well, Eija and Naiki's mother is an old friend mine and my husband's," Akane responded. "Isn't that right, Ryuu?"

"That's right," Ryuu said. "We trained together when we were younger."

"Really," Kurz said. "You two trained with Satomi, that must have been interesting. She's...something else."

"I can guarantee you," Ryuu said with a smile. "That we're right along with her."

"So, I understand that you children will be visiting for a week," Nodoka said, making a point of interrupting the conversation. "I was curious what brought you here."

"Uhh, I think it's already been said that we're friends of the Satomi's," Mizuki said, rolling her eyes. "Duh."

"Yes, but this is the Saotome residence," Nodoka noted, carefully enunciating the name. "There is no one here by the name Satomi."

Naiki and Kaname produced eerily similar scowls considering they weren't mentally linked to each other.

As Eija walked by her, carrying a tray of gyros bread and lamb meat that she had worked on for the last half-hour, Nodoka shifted her scabbard slightly backwards, catching Eija's feet and sending her stumbling.

The goddess was enough of a martial artist that she herself didn't fall, but her dish went scattering over the floor uselessly.

"You did that on purpose," Kaname snapped angrily. "And she's been working hard on that to impress you."

Naiki was up and starting to round the table as well.

"Who are you talking about?" Nodoka asked.

"Who is she talking about?" Naiki demanded, drawing no reaction from the woman.

Akane quickly stood up and got between Kaname and her step-mother-in-law, holding the school girl back. Ryuu likewise moved to catch Naiki.

Kurz quietly stood up, keeping his normal humor quiet for the moment as he tried to move himself around to stand near the older woman that was causing all the trouble.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Nodoka said. "What is all this commotion?"

"It's fine," Eija said quietly. "I can clean it up."

"Masaru," Akane said. "Help your cousin."

"He has no cousin," Nodoka corrected.

"You damn b..." Naiki renewed her efforts to get around the table at Nodoka only to be easily pushed back into a seated position.

"Mother," Ryuu said. "Stop being rude to our guests."

"I have not been rude to anybody that should exist," Nodoka noted.

And that's when they had to hold Akane back.


	22. Mission WrapUps

Ranma and Mao stood in the parking lot of the rather isolated facility, enduring a rather irritating sprinkle of rain.

In front of them were a few unconscious and heavily bound guards. And, beyond that huddled a number of equally uncomfortable girls with a bit less of a tendency to keep their discomfort to themselves.

"We're going to get sick out here," one of the younger girls said, trying to cover her head from the falling rain.

"It's either out here or in the set-to-self-destruct-mad-scientist lair," Mao noted, hood pulled up over her head.

"But I'm wet!" the girl protested.

"Musan," another girl, who looked almost identical to the others. "You should take this opportunity to train before the Mistress sends someone for us."

That girl was trying to work through what might have been a kata or a rhythmic gymnastics routine. It was hard to tell which she was trying to do.

"Could someone make the rain stop moving?" another girl asked in a whisper as she held her head.

Mao rolled her eyes and looked over to Ranma who'd smacked his head and started to walk over to the few of the girls that were trying to "train".

"Everybody stop and sit down," the still male Ranma insisted. "Much as I appreciate a desire to 'train'. You're still technically prisoners." Mao thought she caught a mumbled "and you're doing it wrong" cross the martial artist's lips. "So sit and wait."

"But," one of the handful of girls said before sitting down with a pout.

He looked over at a group of quieter girls sitting in a circle, and noted that it was pretty much every one of the so-called "Sans", the same type as the girl that had died. They seemed to be counting on first glimpse.

However, given their names. It seemed more likely that they were listing either the dead or those still living of their batch.

Looking over toward Mao, he nodded and looked over toward where Nimu Ichi was opening the door to one of the parked cars and then hustling the girl that was suffering from the rain inside.

They'd been out there for a good hour, and the rain had started twenty minutes ago.

"Okay," Melissa said as Ranma came closer. "If you're regional operations coordinator, can't you just place them somewhere in Japan or Korea?"

"This is a bit larger group than we were expecting," the martial artist said. "And we were going to put the Whispered..."

"Which we did not find," Mao reminded her as she kept watch.

"Right, but we were going to leave them with tactical," Ranma said. "Is the Pacific Fleet equipped to handle eighteen...seventeen untrained teens? Because I'm not sure Psyche does."

A rough, cyclical sound came to their ears over the constant drone of the rain, and both of them turned to look in the direction of the sound. The shape of the copters was easy to make out in the rain, which made the ECS system a bit less effective.

"I guess someone agrees with you," Mao said as two transport copters faded into view just short of landing.

Ranma and Mao moved around to in front of the girls, waiting as a man in tactical armor and bearing an assault rifle came up to meet them.

"Sergeant Major Mao," the man said.

"Lieutenant Castello, sir," Mao said crisply before giving a salute.

"And you are the covert op?" the man asked, turning toward Ranma and looking him over.

"That's me," Ranma said.

The man nodded and turned back to Melissa.

"Can you give us the status?" the lieutenant asked. "We heard you had some hostages for us?"

"We have five terrorists captured," Mao said, pointing to the zip-tied men. "And eighteen captives rescued. The facility appears to have a lot of valuable information and research, but information we have says its rigged to be demo-ed."

"Hence why we're out in the rain," Ranma noted.

"I'm guessing you managed to take out the staff before they could trigger any bombs," Castello said, ignoring Ranma for the moment.

"No, there's a potential that the place is being watched from an off-site location," Mao said. "We had a full out monologuing villain bitch who claimed it was 'poetic' for people to know what she was up to. Excuse my language, sir."

"So, if we go in there for bomb disposal," Castello said. "She could change her mind and flip the switch."

"That's about the size of it," Mao said.

The lieutenant looked over the collection of girls and immediately noted that they were all very similar.

"Something to tell me about the girls?" he asked.

"Experiments of some kind," Mao said, not going any further. "Two of them were very helpful in securing the facility. Nimu Ichi, and...Sanya San. Whichever one she is."

She pointed toward Nimu and the circle of Sans.

"I'm guessing the other facility will have similar girls," Castello said.

Ranma held off asking for the location, there was no reason for this man to give it to him, and she'd get the information later.

"What's next for these girls?" Mao asked.

"Meridia first," Castello said. "Then we'll see. Also...there's some news. Captain Testarossa wanted me to tell you, Sagara's team is overdue to report in."

Mao and Ranma exchanged a look then.

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Naiki hadn't been on Earth for more than a couple of minutes before she was contacted in the back of her mind.

_Naiki_ Tessa's mental voice said quietly.

_Are you going to ask for more advice on working out?_ Naiki asked, irritably, half wanting to gripe at something so she could not think about what Poseiden had told her.

_No, there's news,_ Tessa said. _Or rather there's no news._

_Eh?_ Naiki responded eloquently. Off to the side Mara turned about to watch, feeling the connection and wondering what was being said.

_Sousuke's team is late to report in_ Tessa said. _And satellite shows an increased military presence in the area..._

Naiki cursed under her breath and looked up toward the Saotome house where Kaname was lecturing at Eija about something.

_I'll...pass it along,_ Naiki said.

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Nodoka walked out into the yard away from her adoptive children and took in the teenagers about the dojo playing around with her grandchildren.

Her real, acceptable grandchildren.

It looked like people were getting ready to go to the beach down the road, actually. She'd seen some signs of that with Ryuu and Akane, and definitely saw it in that Kurz person.

"Okay! That's it! Sousuke's going to be fine!" the blue-haired girl shouted from where she stood by the unmentionables. "He's Sousuke! He's always fine!"

"I hope so to, but..." the dark-haired...abberration was saying.

"No, not going to hear it," Kaname insisted. "You two have been talking about protecting me and such, well hear this. You are going to have fun today! You are going to the beach with us and you are wearing the swimsuit I got you. Because if you're protecting me, then I'm making sure you know what you've been missing."

"I have a swim suit," Eija protested.

"It's a school generic swimsuit," Naiki noted. "Only perverts like that stuff."

Kaname nodded firmly as she turned to look at Kurz Webber.

"We are seriously not going to do any good worrying about him," Kaname insisted. "So we're going to be confident and believe and all that will float through and get to him and make him come back in one piece, got it."

"Shall we ask the audience at home to clap their hands and say they believe in fairies?" Naiki asked.

Kaname ignored her as she twisted around to face the bulk of the yard.

"Front and center!" she shouted.

The majority of Kaname's friends were familiar with Drill Sergeant Chidori and reacted immediately. Kyoko casually skipping up to where Kaname was and coming to a casual salute as Midori and Shinji practically tumbled over themselves to avoid the wrath that everybody other than Kyoko was vulnerable to.

Masaru and Izumi came quickly and crisply, though looked confused at seeing Kaname, having expected rather another female person at the back of that voice.

Kurz smirked as he leaned against a wall nearby.

"Webber! Here now!" Kaname snapped, showing that he was not immune from her tirade.

He pointed at himself in a bit of shock, several playful commentaries running through the back of his mind.

"Yes, you! Up here, now, Sergeant Webber!" Kaname snapped.

"Right, right," Webber said, trying not to snicker at the teen's attitude. He walked up to the end of the line and gave a crisp technical salute before adding a sarcastic "reporting for duty Ma'am. Ready to receive briefing."

"Right, now," Kaname said. "Here's the plan. We're going to the beach, am I right?"

"Right!" the Jindai High students said in unison, drawing a curious look from Kurz as the humor of the situation from his military perspective became quite a bit more distinctive.

"And we're going to have fun, right?" Kaname asked.

"Right!" The Jindai high student group declared, followed shortly by the two Saotome kids.

"Right, definitely, Ma'am," Kurz said, somewhat less successful at keeping the laughter out of the voice.

"And we're not going to let Eija mope," Kaname said as she grabbed said girl and thrust her out, embarrassment obvious on her face as she was held there. "Am I right?"

"Right!" came the response.

"Okay then!" Kaname declared. "Webber, grab the gear and follow us."

"All of it, me?" Kurz asked, stuttering.

Kaname whirled on him, paper fan inches below his nose and a dark, threatening look in her eyes.

"You do not snicker under your breath at me," she said before whirling again and grabbing Eija and thrusting her fan forward like a general ordering a charge. "And let's go have fun!"

"Sheesh, has she been taking lessons from Mao?" Kurz wondered as he looked to the beach chairs and blankets and cooler.

"Need some help?" Naiki asked, sidling up next to him.

From a safe watch point some distance away, Mara smacked her face.

"At least its not me," the chibi demoness muttered.

As Unit Kaname went out on Mission Fun, Akane, Ryuu and Nodoka gaped.

"What the hell was that?" Ryuu asked.

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"He can stay in those canyons and hills indefinitely," a tall, young man told Gauron. "But I doubt they have the supplies for a long-term stay. They will want to leave quickly and that means aiming for this town here."

"But I imagine Kashim will know that we know this," Gauron commented.

"He will," the young man said. "But doesn't have anyway around it."

"Didn't you two have a little place around here some time ago?" Gauron asked with a cool smile.

"There was, but considering Kashim knows full well that you are the one who destroyed that stronghold," the man noted. "I doubt he'd go there unless he absolutely needed some of the supplies that might still be there."

"And what of the salvage on those unknown ASes?" Gauron asked.

"Already secured," the other pilot said. "But Amalgam seems to have already heard about it."

"Well, I doubt I'd be able to do much without the anyway," Gauron said. "But always nice to have an ace or two."

"North is Soviet territory," Sousuke explained. "If we move south, we will face open ground for miles before we can leave the country and East is cut off by the forces behind us. We will need to head this way."

He pointed to a point on the map indicating a village just past the Helmjastad border.

"No doubt," Bill said. "They will know that as well."

"Indeed," Sousuke said. "And it will be difficult to hide the direction of our movement. If we move, there will be skirmishes or sightings. The sand is shorting out the camouflage, so we cannot ghost through."

"This is supposed to be your backyard, Sergeant," Bill noted. "What do you suggest?"

"Do you know anything about this area that we can use to our advantage?" Grey asked.

"Possibly," Sousuke noted. "But doubtful. There is an old stronghold here, off our straight path."

"Are you suggesting we hide out there until they pass us by?" Andy asked. "I don't much like the idea."

"Negative," Sousuke said, shaking his head. "Gauron is aware of the location."

"Then why bother telling us about it?" Jackson demanded.

"If we appear to be moving in that direction," Sousuke noted. "Then perhaps..."

"A decoy," Baptiste noted.

"Affirmative," Sousuke said with a sigh. "But it is weak. We have no reason to go there and unless Gauron believes that I have forgotten that he assaulted the place last time."

"How would he know that you had that information?" Bill asked.

"Because Commander Kalinin and I arranged to put a bullet in his head not long after," Sousuke explained. "Unfortunately, we were unaware that he had a steel plate from a prior injury."

"The man sounds like he has the devil's own luck," Grey noted, she glanced back toward the demon they had captured. "Metaphorically speaking."

"Okay," Bill said. "We'll head for your old homestead for the next day at least. This looks like the last chance for a passage out of the canyons to the West before we have to hit for your place, is that correct?"

"Affirmative," Sousuke agreed.

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Naiki watched as the wave came in behind her and waited for it to lift her up, standing as it did so.

The wave was mildly enjoyable and helped her put aside a little bit of her frustrations of the past couple of days, but a only little.

Maybe she could go hunting or something, she thought she smelled something tasty out there, or maybe she could practice a little bit of magic.

Back on the beach, Kyoko and Shinji had found some watermelons and were setting them out as Kaname explained the game to Eija.

"I want to go first," a loud voice declared childishly under a hand that was thrusting up and down as the owner of the voice called out.

"No, I want to go first!" a younger voice declared, the owner crossing her arms and thrusting her chin out.

"You little brat," the older voice declared. "I get to go first."

"And while Mizuki argues with whoever is the second most immature person in the area," Kaname said as she watched the blonde argue with Izumi Saotome. "We figure out who goes first. Last time we tried this, Sousuke blew up...well let's go, who's first."

"Perhaps Masaru should go first," Eija noted. "It is the Saotome home that we are staying at."

She paused and looked out toward the East.

"No moping," Kaname snapped. "That settles it, you go first."

Eija sighed and nodded.

"Okay, so here comes the blindfold," Kyoko said cheerfully.

Off to the side, Kurz watched carefully over the teenagers and glanced out toward the water briefly before looking back toward Kaname. He didn't stay focused on the kids getting ready to smash the pumpkin as he did a double-take back out to the water.

"And one, two, three," Kaname and Kyoko were saying as they spun Eija around.

"Oh shit," Kurz said as his head craned higher.

"And time to...."

The entire scene was washed out, literally, as a wave of water flooded over the scene, crashing down like a solid wall.

As the water flowed back out to see a good deal slower than it came in, Kyoko, Kaname and Eija lay sprawled, along with most people on the beach, shocked expressions on their face before they started coughing out water.

Meanwhile, in the center of it all, Naiki tried to sit up and pull the watermelon off her head.

"This is game is never going to work, is it?" Kaname asked morosely.

"AGAIN!" Izumi and Mizuki shouted loudly jumping up and down.

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The young Arabic man working with Gauron was surprised as word came in that Sousuke was indeed seeming to make for the old stronghold that had been destroyed long ago.

His name was Zaid and he had only just barely survived that attack, ending up becoming part of Amalgam's forces. One more elite mercenary for the organization.

As Zaid had told Gauron, he doubted that Sousuke would have headed in that direction unless in definite need. He was too smart to think he could hide there and as a decoy it was very weak, being a boxed in location.

"Looks like he's in need then," Gauron said with a smile.

Zaid nodded in agreement and bent down to start giving his opinion on how Sousuke would set his forces.

It was a day and a half later that Gauron and Zaid's carefully planned attack fell upon the empty stronghold.

"Well, well," Gauron said quietly, with a trace of both admiration and disappointment. "That was well-played."

"I don't understand," Zaid said. "They went more than a day out of their way. They slowed their exit to the west significantly just to set a decoy that Kashim would know is unlikely to succeed."

"Yes, but while we knew that, and he knew that," Gauron noted. "He knew that we'd analyze it that way too. Either that or he was desperate and got lucky. Either way, this was just a side venture. the real game comes pretty soon."

He smiled darkly.

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The country's conventional forces ran across the small group of ASes and the truck in scattered groups, but the majority of their effort had been diverted off to give Amalgam a clear shot at acquiring the Arbalest.

What remained was barely more than enough to slow down the egress of the Mithril machines out of the sand-cursed area and let them fade invisibly away to their pick-up zone, warhead in tow.

The action caught some attention on CNN and a few other news networks, but only as a point of minor concern. No mention of nuclear arms came into the conversation.

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Half a world away, some days afterward. Sousuke stepped off an airplane and walked solemnly as ever down the concourse to where two girls waited for him.

Kaname and Eija were sitting against a wall, the larger girl with a comforting arm around the shorter goddess.

He walked over and sat down on the other side of Eija from Kaname. His own mission had gone as well as could be expected from a failed operation, but it was apparent that something had gotten to the Satomi girl while he'd been gone.

"I'm back," he said simply.

"That's good," Kaname said with a yawn and a clear note of relief.

"Welcome home," Eija said with a smile that was genuine but was also trying to hide her own issues.

Kaname's hand patted the girl's shoulder as the blue-haired girl.

Sousuke took in the look Kaname was giving him and slowly, uncertainly reached out to put his arm around Eija's shoulders. As he brushed Kaname's arm and then wrapped around the goddess's shoulders, he felt a flutter of something...odd.

And he didn't need a mental link to recognize or vaguely share the repressed anger burning in the back of Kaname's eyes.

He was sure to hear of it later, right now, he just had to focus on getting used to the unusual, unfamiliar, if not completely uncomfortable position he was apparently obliged to be in.

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Mithril's Indian Ocean fleet headquarters were faced with a dilemma in the form of an intelligence operative's confusion and disappointment.

"Reports coming in suggested that there was a prisoner," the woman said, frowning as she crossed her arms. "I've come to take charge of him."

"The squadron did not return with anybody other than Sergeant Sagara, Ma'am," the captain who led the base said with a grimace. "The squad leader reported the prisoner died in the last run for escape and I trust my squad leader implicitly."

"I'd like to interview the team that was on this mission," the intelligence operative said.

"On that note, I have word from your office," the fleet commander said. "They need you back to the office for another assignment."

He handed over a paper to her, with a barely contained smirk. The woman wasn't used to this sort of treatment. Not at all, usually, she was the one with knowledge that other people weren't yet supposed to have. This was the first time she'd had that turned around on her.

"I don't think you've heard the end of this," she said firmly.

"Probably not, Miss Kyle," the captain said as the woman marched away.

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A certain third-class demon found himself in a dark room of stone walls that simply reeked of power. He caught sight of the circles around the wall and realized that they circles of power.

They were odd circles of a style he didn't quite recognize.

Circles always came with other shapes based on the concepts favored by their creators. Demons favored squares and diamonds as they acknowledged the four classical elements in their control over the world. Gods focused on the pattern of threes: three worlds, three races and three powers.

These circles seemed to be inscribed with and within octagons.

He stood up and walked forward, before finding himself encountering a very real wall of force at the edge of the circle he was within. It wasn't as strong as the prisons he'd seen in Hell, but it was strong enough to hold him.

"What's going on here?" the demon asked.

In answer to his question, a man who seemed middle-aged walked into the stone dungeon carrying a folding chair with him. He sat down and looked up toward the demon and smiled.

"Well, hello Mr...Tzelanit, I believe," the man said. "I think we need to talk."

"What is this place," the demon demanded.

"I think that I'll be asking the questions here, Mr Tzelanit," the man noted. "We have a basic report of your actions already, and some knowledge of your activities in the past. At least based on what is reported in the journals, tomes and myths we've collected. I must say, you've never really amounted to much, have you?"

The demon fumed at the man's estimation of his past several lives.

"What magic have you used to hold me here, human?" the demon asked.

"And you still seek to ask questions," the middle-aged man said with a smile. "Now, first question. Well, first real question. Whom should we contact about your recklessness? Heaven or Hell?"

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Sousuke considered the girls at either side of him as he walked out of the airport.

Kaname's fuming anger was familiar, but at the moment there was a heaping pile of frustration that she usually burned off with physical attacks on his or someone else's person.

That had eased off a bit when Sousuke had appeared in the gate, though Sousuke himself hadn't quite noted the relaxation.

Eija, meanwhile was keeping a slightly less even keel than normal. There were a few hairs out of place in her, which wasn't usually the case if she was conscious and out of a life-or-death situation.

Or one of her mother's training routines.

Which Kaname had commented could sometimes be considered life or death situations, despite Sousuke and Eija assuring her that they were perfectly safe.

"Hey, Sousuke," Kurz called out as the sergeant walked out with the two girls beside him. "Man, aren't you turning into quite the little player."

Kaname immediately took an embarrassed step away from Sousuke as she glared at Kurz while Eija and Sousuke looked merely confused.

"There's nothing like that going on!" Kaname protested.

"We just met Sousuke-kun coming off the plane," Eija noted. "There hasn't been time to play any games."

"Are you referring to the basketball game I played at the Indian Ocean base," Sousuke asked.

"Sigh, such glorious fortune wasted on such an ignorant fellow," Kurz said dramatically.

Kaname simply stared at the other two teens.

"You know, I forget sometimes that she's almost as out of it as he is," Kaname muttered.

"We should get back," Eija noted. "Saotome-san will be expecting us soon."

"Yes, I heard that your mother arranged for us to be staying with Lieutenant Commander Saotome and her family," Sousuke said. "You were going to compare how your mother's style and theirs branched apart, weren't you?"

"Yeah, that hasn't been going well," Kurz said as the two girls' expressions darkened in differing manners. "There's been a distraction."

"A distraction?" Sousuke repeated.

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Sousuke walked into the Saotome house, his duffle slung at his back. He looked about trying to catch sight of what had set the two girls of his life into such states as they were.

Kyoko was taking pictures of things, seemingly at random. That was normal, though Naiki wasn't jumping into every possible shot and posing, which was a bit unusual.

Mizuki was playing with a little girl who Sousuke assumed was Lt. Commander Saotome's daughter.

Shinji was watching a young boy, who seemed less than thrilled by the prospect of spending time with the bespectacled boy.

There didn't appear to be any particular source of discomfort obvious. He frowned slightly, enough to actually be noticeable, as he looked over to where Eija and Kaname had moved off to help with peeling potatoes, a task that had been attended to by a well-built man that Sousuke assumed was the Lt. Commander's husband.

He almost didn't recognize the naval officer out of her uniform as Akane Saotome came out dressed in civilian clothing. She paused and looked over at him with an appraising eye.

"So, I didn't get your name after you took apart Kuno last time," Akane said, noticing him. "You must be Sousuke, we've heard a bit about you. Good to see you're okay."

"Ma'am?" Sousuke asked.

"Eija and Kaname have been worried about you," Akane responded with a nod toward the girls. "You'd almost think they were worried about a soldier on rotation rather than a friend visiting family."

"Family can be very dangerous, Ma'am," Sousuke said defensively.

"Don't we know it," Akane returned with a suddenly sullen look as she turned to look toward the house. "Go ahead and take your things through the house, I think Eija and Kaname know where we're putting you."

"Thank you Ma'am," Sousuke said with a crisp salute before marching off toward the house, and catching up with Eija and Kaname.

Ryuu walked up toward Akane's side and looked toward where Sousuke had walked toward the house. Both Saotome's glanced over at Kurz.

"He's sort of a military otaku," Kurz said a bit embarrassed.

"That's about half-right," Ryuu said, arching an eyebrow.

At the house, Kaname and Eija looked up from the potatoes as Sousuke walked over. The blue-haired girl smiled up at him and then went back to looking around for Nodoka, not that Sousuke even knew about Nodoka yet.

"Lt Commander Saotome said that you would know where I should place my things," Sousuke said.

"Oh, right," Kaname said, narrowing her eyes and looking around for something.

Nodoka had to show herself sooner or later, and she'd more than likely come from the family quarters rather than the student and guest quarters. So, sending Eija that way should keep her out of the way.

"Eija, think you can get Sergeant Serious here a quick tour?" Kaname asked. "I've got this."

"Hmm, certainly," Eija said, confused as she had only just started the task. "I'll be right back to help."

She stood up and smiled toward Sousuke, before gesturing for him to follow her.

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Nodoka nodded appreciatively as she took in the guest rooms of her adoptive son and daughter's home. This dojo and house clearly showed the benefit of wise financial handling given its size compared to the Tendo facility.

Certainly an indication of the success of the school if Ryuu had expected to need to house as many students as this building could house.

Glancing out the window, she watched the green-haired...creature...flirting, thankfully ineffectively, with the lovely blonde girl who enjoyed taking pictures.

Further proof that such could not be of her blood, whatever their claim.

Or else further proof that her...child...had indeed disgraced...the family so much that her shame was passed on.

She mentally edited out the girl's inappropriate advances on a member of the same gender as she walked back out of the room and saw the other abomination escorting some strange young man for what was likely to be immoral purposes toward the guest rooms.

It should be noted that Akane and Ryuu had each informed her that another teenager would be joining the other six.

Rising her chin and closing her eyes, she started to shift the wrapped scabbard at her side. She failed to notice the slight shift in the young man's stance that this action created.

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"SOUSUKE! NO! THAT'S MY GRANDMOTHER!!"

Everyone turned toward the sound of that cry.

Kaname smirked and turned toward Ryuu and Akane, who had come to help her with peeling potatoes.

"For once I'm glad Sousuke's a paranoid, unsocialized, overprotective attack dog," she said.

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I went ahead and edited this to add material

Also, I know some people weren't interested in the Omake, but I still think I should include it.

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Omake written by AYH

Clenching and unclenching her fists, Naiki tried to steady her rage outside in the warm Okinawan night air. 'The more family I meet the more I'm glad that Mom raised all of us on the move.'

Gritting her teeth the young teen was still sure that if she saw the Saotome matriarch she'd rip the woman's head off and spit down the hole. So focused on her anger that she completely missed the miniature leather clad figure of her current mentor and teacher; Mara.

"Impressive display of rage there. Any reason why you're trying to rein it all in?"

Shaking out of her daydream of skewering one Nodoka Saotome on her own sword Naiki caught sight of a 1/16 sized chibi replica of her trainer. "What the hell happened to you?"

Shushing her charge the demon first class motioned the new demon of the torrent to follow her.

Seeing that Mara didn't seem too distressed at her current condition Naiki followed the surprisingly fast doll-woman until they were several blocks away. Looking around Mara nodded as she felt confident that the resident neo-goddess Eija would not sense her and recalled her split selves. Within seconds the restored blonde was once again looking Naiki in the eye.

"Remember that little matter you wanted me to check out? The one about the 'visitation rights'," the demoness asked.

"Huh? Visi—! You mean we can go!?" A now clearly excited neo-demoness asked, bouncing on her feet. "Oh man, me an Eija finally can unleash some vengeance now, and I should try to call Mom as well. I'm sure she'd really like to give those sons of a —" Stopping the younger entity before she could go any further Mara shook her head.

"There will be no you and Eija, and definitely not your Mom as well."

Cutting off any complaints Mara took Naiki by the shoulders. "We've got only an hour widow starting now to go in and see Poseidon. And we can definitely not bring in anyone else that isn't a pishogue user or we'll be detected. I'm pulling enough strings as it is and I won't take any risks of the other side catching on to what I'm doing. I can't give you any more, take it or leave it."

Staring at the elder demon, Naiki growled under her breath but nodded in acceptance. "Fine, let's go." ________________________________________

Tartarus is a plane of existence often confused for Hell. This is not the case as Hell is the domicile of the demonic race while Tartarus was designed specifically with the torment of its inhabitants in mind, each environment chosen specifically to weaken and slowly break the will of the damned.

Thus Naiki did not find herself surrounded fire or molten lava, nor did she see any lakes of screaming souls. Once again she was rather disappointed with reality not living up to the hype.

"This is it?" Naiki screamed as she threw her arms open to indicate the barren and empty desert landscape. "This is all that bastard gets after everything he's done!?"

"For a sea god like Poseidon this is punishment. Remember, you've got 57 minutes and then I'm dragging your little butt out of here whether you like it or not."

Feeling her anger building once more, Naiki nodded before scanning the horizon. Seeing a shape across the dunes the green haired demoness shot off towards the sole male inhabitant of the area. The brother of Zeus lay before her, his massive whale sized body chained and immobilized to the ground. Above a merciless sun bore down while a multitude of monstrous shapes tore and fed upon his flesh. Naiki wanted to see him suffer more.

His head turning to the side, a single eye opened, its twin seemingly already ripped out by one of the creatures crawling along his form. Eerily accepting of his current imprisonment Poseidon gazed down at his newest guest.

Getting into a ready stance, Naiki grit her teeth as she realized that the god would not speak. "Well, aren't you going to beg me to let you free? Whine about how you don't deserve this? Offer me 'untold' power to get you out of here? Are you even going to ask who I am!?"

Holding his gaze, the mighty sea god spoke for the first time. "I know you Naiki, my dau—!"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT! You have no right to call me that after you raped my mother!"

A look of confusion crossing his features, Poseidon's gaze seemed to focus slightly more as he heard the young demoness's cries. "I recall no woman of mortal birth involved in your conception. You are the child of two fathers, untouched by woman's soul."

"Ranko Satomi! Or was it Ranma Saotome back then? It doesn't matter! If you can't remember then I'll just make you remember!"

Launching herself at the fallen deity, Naiki unleashed a storm of pishogue powered Kijin Raishu Dans. Letting the raw anger within her peak she called upon her power. Around her sand and debris swirled and gathered, rising as a colossal mount of darkened earth crackling with demonic energy. With an almost inhuman shriek Naiki unleashed the torrent upon the imprisoned god, burning away his flesh and tearing at his open wounds. The cries of many of the monsters that had been burrowing into the immobilized god's muscle went unacknowledged as they were also consumed by the tsunami of pishogue. Panting as she tried to catch her breath, Naiki clenched her fists again as she readied another wave, her rage not even close to being spent, when the unsettlingly calm voice of Poseidon spoke once again.

"Yes, I remember a Ranma Saotome. I have often regretted what happened that night."

"Good! But it's too damn late to appologi—!"

"I regret that I allowed my brother to go first."

Choking on her response Naiki actually fell forward when she heard his response.

"I had heard that the mortal Ranma Saotome was a great fighter and survivor. A combatant who had always came back from any defeat to avenge himself for any loss. I had hoped that by being second that I would face a prepared opponent, a ready warrior already utilizing his previous experience to confront me. Instead what I found was a defeated and whimpering—"

No battle cry preempted her next attack. One moment she was still as death and the next her body simply overwhelmed Poseidon. Sweeping over his entire length Naiki unleashed her domain upon the ancient being as her rage took control. Like glowing obsidian water the torrent consumed and obliterated everything before it. Dark energy battled against the might of Poseidon, though still bound the older god's power was still a force to be awed as it crashed against the oncoming wave. The storm of pishogue and mana blanketed the area and lit up the sky above them, temporarily overpowering the sun as the two powers clashed.

With a deafening explosion, Naiki was hurled back nearly blacking out as she crashed unto the earth once more. Struggling to get back up she staggered as her burning lungs took in large gasps of air. Swaying, the green haired girl nearly fell when she felt something akin to a solid wall gently catch her. Leaning against her new support, Naiki beheld a gigantic hand attached to a torn arm, bone and sinew visible from enormous gauges along its length. Following the arm further she could see a massive chest, ripped open and its ribs cracked and exposed to the open air. Lifting off the ground, the hand that had supported her fell to the ground with a thunderous crash as the face of Poseidon came into view. Still gazing down at her, the son of Cronus expression conveyed only one emotion upon it.

With sickening comprehension, Naiki realized that the god was proud of her.

"Of … all my *cough* children, of all *gasp* those that I sired," Poseidon gestured weakly to the corpses of the various creatures that now lay scattered across the ground, "only you have *cough* shown such power." Wheezing, the ruined god's head fell back as the powers of Tartarus quickly began its work of re-shackling its prisoner, reviving the dead spawn, and regenerating just enough of Poseidon to ensure his torment did not end prematurely.

"children…?" Naiki weakly mumbled as she watched the various monstrosities gangly rise up and move once more towards their immobilized sire.

"Yes … your half brothers and sisters *hurk* come to claim my flesh for their own. Will you take a part of it too *cough* my daughter?"

Shaking her head the middle child of the Satomi family lashed out at the imprisoned figure. "What the hell is wrong with you!? I just kicked your ass and you're acting like that's a good thing. I'm trying to kill you! Don't you get it, I hate you!"

Once more a look of confusion crossed the sea god's face. "Your reasons… confuse me. Why are you here *pant* if not for my power my child?"

"Shut it! I'm not your child! I'm not even part god or goddess or whatever! I'm a demon now and I'm here for what you did 17 years ago!"

Resting his eye as his labored breathing steadily came under control, Poseidon took a shuddering breath of all too dry and arid air before answering. "God, Demon; those are but mere words. When we last walked freely among the mortals there were none who could openly challenge our rule. So we became our own adversaries. Darkness and Light, both were ruled by the gods. What do sides matter when one controls the entire board?"

"As for my own actions, you should understand them well. Do you not seek to prove yourself over and over? Do you not revel in your own strength? How would you feel if your very existence were to be mocked by one thinking they were better than you? How far would you go to prove your own might?"

"I wouldn't fucking rape some one!"

"You are a goddess or demoness as you insist. It is only because you were raised by a mortal that you still feel that way. In time you will come to understand that they are as insignificant and passing as dust in the wind."

Once more Naiki lashed out with a barrage of Kijin Raishu Dans and once again her opponent paid the pain and injury no heed.

"You know nothing about me, nothing! You're just a pathetic relic that not even those bastard gods want around anymore. What makes you think you know a damn thing about me?" Naiki yelled.

Sighing, a ghost of a smile actually appeared on Poseidon's face as if recalling some pleasant memory. "I know you because unlike my brother and niece, I watched you grow. Every time you entered the ocean, every time you submerged yourself within the waves, I was there with you. Your entire life, I was always at your side."

"You … LYING son of a bitch…" her rage and anger struggling to surge once again, the middle Satomi nearly choked on her own bile as it threatened to spew forth at the thought of this … thing swimming alongside her during her entire life. That it was now claiming to have been there during some of the happiest moments in her childhood, it was completely unforgivable!

"You are so confused my—"

"I'm not your anything! Only one person can call me daughter and you sure as hell aren't her!"

"Deny it all you want, you will always be a part of my godly family and lineage."

"Like hell! I have a family and it's a million times more meaningful than anything you could ever be a part of."

"You refer to your current kin? Your 'mother' is a mortal, your brother is lost, and you are fated to kill your own sister. There is nothing within your family that I am not already familiar with."

For once ignoring that backhanded insult to her mother, Naiki's mind instead glossed over the news of her brother and instead focused on the last part of the god of storms statement. "What do you mean I'm 'fated' to kill my sister? What are you hiding about Eija?"

"I know that a war is coming. Time is like a current and I can sense its flow. When conflict breaks out, I know what side you will be on. The question is; will your sister be on that side as well?"

"Wha… we wouldn't, Eija would never go against…"

Struggling with the very concept of having to fight against her own sister, Naiki failed to notice Mara until the other demoness had already grabbed her by the shoulder and teleported them away from the depths of Tartarus.

Blinking at the sudden shift between the burning brightness of Poseidon's prison and the darkness of night, Naiki shook her head as she tried to make sense of the past hour.

"I take it things didn't go as planned," Mara stated, breaking the silence.

"No, not even close," Naiki mumbled more confused and upset than before. Shivering as her body tried to adjust to the sudden shift in temperature the emerald haired girl turned to head back to her sister and friends.


	23. Battles at Home

While Kaname was trying to cheer up Eija and Sousuke was trying to get out of Helmjistan, Mao and Ranma were finishing up with the small host of akiras they'd taken charge of.

"What's going to happen here?" Nimu asked quietly as she watched her sisters loaded into the troop helicopters.

"That'll be discussed," Ranma told her. "I can tell you it isn't going to be easy. We were coming to rescue one girl, not twenty."

"Just got word from the other site," Mao said, arriving. "They found thirty girls there, some younger than these."

"That would be the Go's," Nimu said. "They're meant to be the M...Kodachi's research assistants."

Mao and Ranma exchanged a look.

"So, they'd be highly intelligent," Mao said. "Is she interested in one in particular?"

Nimu looked toward the other two people, narrowing her eyes.

"Yaku Go," Nimu said. "Sanya and I were trying to recover her after she'd escaped. Some boy's been protecting her."

"Tall, blonde," Ranma asked.

"That's him," Nimu said. "He has one of my sister's with him. Do you know where she is, she needs a...vitamin shot soon."

"From what we can tell," Mao said. "He raided another of these places for a supply of your vitamins, so she should be fine."

"Go make sure your sister's are taken care of," Ranma said politely.

Nimu frowned, but realized she wasn't going to get anything out of the two. Reluctantly, she turned toward the helicopters, pausing momentarily to look back over her shoulder.

"I'm trusting you," she said firmly.

"We're going to do what we can," Ranma said firmly.

Then the girl was away.

Mao looked toward Ranma and considered the situation.

"The Whispered?" she asked.

"I wouldn't be surprised," Ranma said. "And apparently, Deimosu has her on his little private mission."

"Are you coming with us to Meridia?" Mao asked.

"Not a good idea," Ranma said.

"No one there has seen you like this," the mercenary noted, indicating Ranma's currently male body. "So they won't connect you with your family."

"Yeah, but there are real people from Intelligence division on Meridia," Ranma said. "So my cover as a 'covert agent' won't hold up. And since they're not cleared for Psyche yet..."

"Right," Mao said. "The Captain will want to speak to you face to face."

"Oh, the Captain will hear my report soon enough," Ranma said with a smirk.

"So, on to Okinawa from here, then?" Mao asked, narrowing her eyes as the man...woman...whatever implied some means of contact with Tessa that she wasn't privy to.

"That's about right," the martial artist agreed.

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Avalon Providers' offices hung off the beaten track from much the rest of Heaven. Many of the living were nervous about the presence of the dead, but those who were ageless, even nearly immortal found such wandering spirits even more distasteful.

Though, of course, their were exceptions.

Most of the death seers of heaven, native or immigrants, worked in the Avalon Providers and it was their task to manage the small percentage of restless spirits that did not pass on to the greater mystery beyond. Sometimes they returned to a new life, a reincarnation.

For the most part, they monitored the work of mortal mediums and death seers from a distance. However, given enough time it became increasingly difficult for mortal mediums to help a lingering spirit. Which is when the Avalon Providers quietly stepped in.

There were a large number of old spirits kept in Avalon, where they could remain until a way was found to help them move out of this realm. It was rare for the newly dead to appear in this place.

Even rarer to see the departed soul of one the immortals.

Persephone was sitting at her desk when she felt the arrival of a spirit. It wasn't the first time a spirit appeared past the lobbies, entrances and other offices of her command. Ghosts were difficult to contain or forbid entry. They didn't seem to obey consistent laws of space, but rather just appeared where they wished to appear.

Looking up, Persephone saw the spirit in front of her and had a rough surprise.

The feel of a dead, bodiless soul was unmistakable, but so, too, were the marks of a demoness upon the young woman's face. She was dressed in heavenly robes and wearing the headset of television operator.

"Hello," the spirit asked. "Miss Satomi? Miss Satomi? Are you there?"

Persephone recognized the name easily and stood up, carefully approaching the spirit, obviously showing the confusion of the newly dead.

"Excuse me," Persephone said gently.

The ghost turned to look at her and squinted, as if staring through a haze and trying to identify something.

"Lady Persephone," she said. "Your granddaughter was just on the line. I lost the connection."

"That's fine," Persephone said. "What is your name?"

"Jarinta," the ghost of the demoness said. "Where am I? I was at work."

"This is Avalon," Persephone explained.

"Why, how..." Jarinta asked. "I didn't walk here. I was on the phone and then..."

"That was several days ago," Persephone said gently.

"It was just now," Jarinta protested.

"Come with me," Persephone said, gesturing with her hand, careful not to touch the woman. "I'll find a place for you to stay."

"I can't stay here," Jarinta said. "Avalon is only for the...for the...dead."

"I'm afraid so," Persephone said.

Jarinta's face looked aghast for a few seconds and then she was gone.

Persephone sighed and shook her head. She was much more used to the long dead, the newly dead were unpredictable and touchy. Unfortunately, given they usually let mortals handle newly dead meant that few if any of her people had the proper experience for this matter.

She walked out of her office and looked toward the god sitting in the position of her secretary. She looked toward him.

"Thanatos," she said. "The spirit of the demoness that died last week just appeared here."

"I thought I felt something," the other god said. "I assume she's gone now?"

"Yes, she took news somewhat hard, I'm afraid," Persephone said. "Arrange to have someone speak to her friends and family. Make sure they know the proper spells to see and speak to her if she appears again."

"Of course," Thantos noted. "And you?"

"I'll be taking a trip to the mortal realm," Persephone said. "She relayed that one of my new grandchildren was trying to reach me. In any case, Eija is a death seer herself, and formerly mortal, she might prove useful in this situation."

"The new Goddess of Blood, yes?" Thanatos asked. "Wouldn't she be better suited to a case of violent death."

"Perhaps, but I'd like to see her into the business regardless," Persephone noted.

* * *

"How dare you!" Nodoka shouted at the top of her lungs as people gathered around.

Her hands were behind her back, secured in zip-ties as she stood up and glared at Sousuke. A strand of her hair had escaped her bun and fallen down in front of her face.

"I apologize, Ma'am," Sousuke said from where he stood at attention. "I was not aware that you were her grandmother. I simply saw you drawing the weapon. I assume this is some form of training."

"Training?" Nodoka snapped. "Ridiculous."

"Grandmother," Eija said stepping forward. "Let me untie..."

"Don't touch me!" Nodoka snapped at the girl, causing Eija to step back.

Coming in from the crowd of gathering onlookers, Ryuu stepped forward and moved around behind Nodoka, cutting the zip ties with the knife he had been using for skinning potatoes.

"I want these hooligans out of the house immediately," Nodoka insisted. "Assaulting respectable woman for no reason."

"M...Nodoka," Ryuu said, pulling her aside. "Calm down, it was a misunderstanding and it won't happen again."

In the background, Akane was moving her and Ryuu's children away from the scene, shuffling most of the teenagers away as well. She paused at the part of the hallway leading out to the front room, and gasped slightly.

"Most certainly not," Nodoka insisted. "Because these...people shall be gone from my house."

"This is my house," Ryuu insisted. "And these are our guests. Family even."

Nodoka strode past her adoptive son and pointed toward Eija and Naiki.

"These are not guests," Nodoka insisted. "These are a stain on the honor of our clan. They cannot be born of any thing that shares blood with me. You should have dealt with them immediately."

"Hey, I might be a demon, but there's nothing Eija's done to deserve being called a stain," Naiki snapped.

Nodoka twisted to look at Naiki, raising her hand up as she did so. The green-haired girl could have easily caught the backhanded slap that was coming, but there was no need.

A second red-headed woman had moved between the children and Nodoka and caught the hand firmly.

Nodoka struggled briefly to pull her hand back, but younger woman held it firmly. Their eyes met briefly, and Nodoka saw the flash of anger that matched her own, and beneath it a well of sadness and regret the younger woman couldn't keep hidden.

Then her hand was released and she was stepping back.

Ranma turned slowly to look at Akane and Ryuu.

"I'm sorry for the trouble," Ranma said.

"It is really no problem," Akane said politely.

"Thank you for taking care of my daughters," Ranma said, looking back toward Nodoka. "Naiki, Eija, can you give me some time."

"Ha..hai," Eija said, bowing and starting to edge away from the scene, before turning and retreating fully.

Naiki frowned and left more slowly.

Ranma looked back again, saw Kaname and Sousuke standing there, watching and looking somewhat uncertain.

"I thought you two cared about my daughter," Ranma said with a slight, encouraging smile and a nod. Her voice was cold, though the coldness was not directed at them.

"Right," Kaname said, flushing brightly. "Let's go Sousuke."

Kaname grabbed Sousuke's arm and pulled him away from the scene to go after Eija, leaving only the four adults in the hallway.

"Is there somewhere I can discuss matters with your other guest?" Ranma asked of Ryuu and Akane.

"You can use the room here," Ryuu said, opening a door.

"Saotome-san?" Ranma said, gesturing for Nodoka to enter ahead of her.

Hesitantly, still shocked perhaps, Nodoka straightened herself and, with a physical grace born of years of practice, walked into the room. Ranma followed behind her, and even the barely restrained storm of emotions behind her cool appearance was more graceful than the uncertainty in Nodoka's manner.

Akane closed the door behind Ranma and shared a look with Ryuu.

"She's changed a lot," Ryuu whispered.

"Let's check the kids," Akane said.

* * *

Nodoka, in her kimono, kneeled down in the room and composed herself as Ranma, dressed in a red woman's business suit, sat down across from her, cross legged.

"Why are you still alive?" Nodoka asked harshly.

"Have you heard the story of Medusa, Saotome-san?" Ranma asked, ignoring the question.

"I care not for barbaric superstitions," Nodoka snapped.

"Medusa was a beautiful priestess of Athena," Ranma said, continuing to ignore Nodoka. "With great white wings and long, dark lovely hair. Then, one day, she attracted the interest of...a certain god," Ranma's cool demeanor shifted slightly as she spoke.

She took a moment to recover herself and continued.

"She refused his advances," Ranma continued. "So he...came to the temple of Athena and forced himself on her. Afterwords, she prayed to Athena, seeking comfort and justice. Instead, Athena punished her for the crime of having been a victim. Turned her hair into snakes and the feathers of her her wings to war-like brass. And worst of all, left the children of the crime locked within her, undeveloped until a young man freed her from the misery."

"I don't see the point of this story," Nodoka said firmly.

"You were the only one I called after...it," Ranma said. "Pride and fear kept me from speaking to..." she paused and looked over her shoulder briefly, "...the Tendos. But certainly Saotome-san, who had accepted the curse, could be understanding."

Nodoka frowned slightly as Ranma again referred to her as "Saotome-san" rather than mother.

"Instead of a mother's comfort, I get Athena's judgment," Ranma said harshly, still keeping down her volume. "You knew everything you needed to say to destroy me and you said it all."

"I said what I did so that you could do the right thing," Nodoka insisted. "And still I find you were too cowardly to do the honorable thing."

"You're lucky, Saotome-san," Ranma said. "You're lucky I wasn't physically capable of carrying out seppuku until after I found out I was pregnant. You're lucky that Nabiki didn't die looking for me when you could have said quite easily where I was."

"Have you..." Nodoka asked, suddenly concerned.

"Have I told anybody that you knew?" Ranma asked, voice still low. "No, I'm not responsible for your sins. Just my own. I've apologized to Akane for lacking trust in her and almost getting Nabiki killed. When I discuss my intention to kill myself with my children and ask for their forgiveness, I'll keep your name out of it, Saotome-san."

The space between them was deadly quiet for a long time afterward.

"I apologize, Saotome-san," Ranma said finally. "The information I had said you were on vacation in Hokkaido. I didn't expect you to be here when my children were here."

"And you expected me to not hear about you from Akane and Ryuu?" Nodoka asked. "And I assume you've spoken to the Tendos as well."

"Most everyone knows I'm back in Japan," Ranma said. "I knew we'd meet sooner or later after Akane figured out who I was."

"Then you would make me out to be a fool?" Nodoka snapped. "The last to know? Did you want to hurt me? Get revenge because I hurt you? Until a few days ago, I knew you were among our ancestors. And now, I know that when you die, you will be in suffering in Yoma."

She emphasized that last word heavily.

"Tell me, Saotome-san," Ranma said. "If you had to choose between your children's lives or eternal suffering. Which would you choose?"

"I chose my child's soul," Nodoka responded. "Have you seen what's come of your failure? At least one of your daughters is a lesbian, clearly your shame has passed on. It would have been better for her not to have existed rather than be cursed as such."

"Souls are reborn, Saotome-san," Ranma said. "In one life we might be a man, in the next a woman. And some of us will be both. I doubt, when one finds their soulmate I doubt their soul cares what body it is in. Nor do I believe that a Universe which gives us a rotating gender cares where we find our love placed."

Ranma and Nodoka stared across the gap of ideologies and beliefs, unable to bring the other over to their side of the chasm. Slowly, Nodoka straightened up, metaphorically pulling back the offer to Ranma to join her on her side. As she did so, Ranma sighed and straightened herself.

"Fine," Ranma said. "I'll arrange for hotel rooms for the last few days of this vacation. That will allow those who want to spend time together to do so without being forced to."

She stood up.

"I'm going to set aside what I saw and heard for now," Ranma said. "But I won't deny my children the right to know you, or you to know them."

Her voice then turned hard and cold.

"But I am not forgetting, Saotome-san," Ranma said. "I do not like to see my children hurt, and I saw your words in Eija's eyes when she ran out of here. I doubt you know her well enough to really hurt her yet, but if you try that again, I will respond."

She turned her back on Nodoka.

"And, Saotome-san," Ranma said. "You can crush hearts, but, if I want to, I can reach your soul."

Ranma walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

* * *

"Sergeant Major Mao," a man called out as he peeked his head into the pilot's lounge. "Captain Testarossa is ready to debrief you now."

"I'm on my way," Mao said irritably as she dumped the just opened can of beer into a nearby sink.

Lovely timing that was, of course, it would have been worse if it had come after she'd actually drank the beer. Still, she did wish that the Captain could have decided to call her in yesterday, when she was actually prepared for it.

Walking out of the lounge, she glanced out and saw some of the girls they rescued through the window lounging in the sunlight on the Meridia beach. She saw another set waiting in line at the clinic as she passed it by.

Nimu Ichi had discussed the medical need the girls had, some sort of monthly injection, or they died painfully. So currently everyone of them was being given a check up in turn as the "vitamin" shot they needed was being analyzed.

Word seemed to hold that reproducing the supplement wasn't going to be that difficult.

Then Mao was walking into Tessa's office and found the platinum haired teen sitting behind her desk

"Sergeant Major Mao," Melissa said with a crisp salute. "Reporting as ordered, Ma'am."

"Please sit down, Sergeant Major," Tessa was saying. "We're all ready to get down to this."

Mao looked around the office as Tessa said we and tried to find a camera or something else that would make "we" make sense. Not seeing anything, she tried to keep her confusion off her face.

"Yes, Ma'am," she said, sitting down.

"We have...almost fifty untrained teenagers on base," Tessa said. "I believe the total number is forty eight."

"That's correct, Ma'am," Mao said. "They name themselves by what I can only call serial numbers."

Tessa seemed to look off for a moment.

"Ichi, Ni, San, Yon and Go," the girl said, looking to Mao for confirmation.

"That's right," Mao said, assuming that Tessa had read the report already. "The terrorists killed one of the girls before we could secure the site, trying to clear a firing line to me."

"They're seen as expendable then," Tessa said with a look of distaste. "What can you tell me about this...Kodachi."

"She's psychotic," Mao said. "Obviously a skilled biologist and martial artist. And she claims to be sort of...partly whispered."

Tessa looked away for a moment and Mao watched as an intense look of disgust built over her commanding officer's face.

"She uses resonance to copy herself into the bodies of her own children?" Tessa demanded sitting up.

"That's...I kept that out of the report, how'd you..." Mao started to ask.

"Naiki," Tessa said.

"What?" the mercenary asked, not getting the reference for a moment. "Wait, do you have a link with her like Kaname and Eija?"

"Unfortunately," Tessa said with a sigh.

"What's that like?" Mao wondered.

"Imagine a TV with no volume control that changes channels at random," the sixteen year old captain noted dryly. "Let's...oh, for heaven's sake, Naiki calm down and focus on the task at hand. Anyway, as we were saying."

"Kodachi Kuno claims to have lost at least nine bodies already," Melissa said. "Both the body we looked at and the one recovered appear to be more or less identical save for variations in height or so. The autopsy showed the woman killed by Nimu Ichi had gone through breast reduction surgery. So she's artificially aging and altering her new bodies to look more like she does."

"Did she show any signs of using any of host's powers?" Tessa asked.

"Not that I saw," Mao said. "Did Ranma notice anything?"

"She comments that if the one that you dealt with had had her breast's reduced, then she was probably a Yon," Tessa commented. "And thus a sensor."

"And I wouldn't be able to notice if she sensed anything," Mao noted. "My impressions, Ma'am. This Kodachi Kuno is a threat at least as great as the organization that seems to be backing Gauron. We can't possibly know how many 'bodies" she's already taken over and we have no way to protect anybody from her."

"She can only 'eat' people with mental type powers," Tessa commented after a moment. "And I think we're close to prototype to fix that vulnerability. But I agree, practically any psychic is a potential host for this woman. I'm going to request a standing kill order on her from headquarters."

The last statement was made with a heavy tone of regret.

"But, the hosts," Mao asked, shocked to be hearing that last command from Tessa Testarossa of all people.

"The sort of Resonance you and Ranma are talking about," Tessa noted. "It's irreversible. It's also supposed to be an equal merger of minds. Either this Kodachi's mind is very strong, or it's less equal when dealing with non-Whispered. Those girls...they're dead."

"And what happens to the girls we do have?" Melissa asked.

"That's a tough job," the Captain said. "Ranma confirms that she doesn't have the facilities to easily hide them all in her region."

"If I might make a suggestion," Mao said. "Nimu Ichi should be offered a job after a psych eval. Maybe Sanya San, though she couldn't be more than thirteen."

"Eight, actually," Tessa said. "I've talked with a few of the girls. They're all significantly younger than they look. But I'll see if they're interested. In any case, Psyche's going to be watching them wherever they end up, giving them training I assume."

"So we aren't keeping them around then?" Mao asked.

"This isn't the best place to grow up," Tessa said quietly. "I've asked Ranma to speak to the other Psyche regions to see if we can spread them out over a few different towns around the world."

Tessa frowned and sighed.

"I don't like breaking up a family," the woman said. "But they're such a large family....no, of course, I'm not going to prevent them from keeping in contact."

"You don't have to talk into thin air like that to talk with her, do you?" Mao asked.

"No, but I thought I'd be polite and let you know what's going on," Tessa noted, looking toward Mao at this point.

"This is rather hard to get used to," Mao noted.

"Hard for you to get used to?" Tessa repeated incredulously.

* * *

Deimosu looked over toward Yonjuu and noted that she was still sleeping, but the shakes had stopped and she seemed to be breathing easier. She was already asleep when he came back and he'd been somewhat worried that he hadn't gotten to her in time.

However, she looked like she was getting better and he'd made the effort to look at her aura. It was starting to repair itself, so the girl was out of danger.

As for Yaku, she was using the computer as a gaming platform again. She didn't seem affected by Yonjuu's condition. Then again, Deimosu wasn't sure that she was completely aware of what was going on.

The demigod sort of remembered that age, when he hadn't known how close death had walked by him and his sisters. It hadn't been a very long period in his life, unfortunately. Hopefully, Yaku lived through a real childhood that was more than a bit longer.

He turned back to the task he had at hand, cutting some of the crystals that he'd collected from mushroom cave. He had a good amulet already, which would give him a small boost to chi.

"I guess this is why Mom only uses these things for teaching or rituals," Deimosu said under his breath.

In any case, however, these boosts should give him a bit of an edge for the next move in his plans.

* * *

Yonjuu woke up slowly as someone shoved at her weakly but persistently. She cracked open her eyes and looked to see who was pushing at her. The image of her younger sibling came to her, though Yaku jumped back away as she saw the older girl's eyes open.

"What do..." Yonjuu started to ask before she sat bolt upright and started looking over herself.

Experimentally, she held out one of her hands and watched as it held there solidly. The shakes were gone.

"I'm alive?" she said, surprised before remembering Yaku "What did you want?"

"Big Brother is sick," Yaku said, pointing toward another corner of the lab they were in.

The little girl stepped back again away from Yonjuu again and hid behind one of the rocks they'd been using as seats. The older girl gritted her teeth a little bit on seeing that reaction, but relented. She couldn't let herself worry about how Yaku saw her.

The Ni looked over to see Deimosu slumped onto his side in the middle of one of those strange circles he'd drawn before. She stood up, feeling a dizzy despite the fact that her symptoms had stopped. Walking over, she bent down, relieved to sit down and looked over the demigod.

The girl wasn't in much of a hurry, she'd heard the young man's heart beat from across the room and he didn't sound like he was in danger of anything. She sniffed and picked up the traces of fatigue and pain sweating out of the skin.

She'd smelled it before from him when he'd done...whatever he'd done that let her and Yaku understand Greek for a little bit.

"He's fine," Yonjuu said, jabbing the boy. "Just tired."

She stopped when she looked over and saw a circle of crystals surrounding vials of what she recognized to be her "vitamin" supplements.

"Those have to be kept cold!" she called out, moving across to the vials and reaching out to them.

As soon as her hand passed over the circle of cut crystals, she felt the sudden cold and jerked her hand back in surprise.

Still, she looked at the vials, more than enough to last her a year, maybe longer. And to get these, he would have had to go past the Mistress. She was always where the vitamin shots were kept, always. And that might mean that he'd...beaten her?

Still she had something else in mind.

"What's going on here?" she wondered. "I'm used to people that can do things, but all this...this..."

"That's because you haven't been taught or trained," Deimosu said sitting up.

"What are you talking about?" Yonjuu asked. "You can't train or be taught these things. You're just born with them."

Deimosu grunted a bit as he turned to face her.

"Right, I can't breathe water or see death like my sisters," Deimosu said. "And they can't call lightning like I can. It's like being born tall or..." he gestured at Yonjuu's impressive chest.

"Quit reminding me," Yonjuu snapped, covering her chest as much as she could.

"Anyway, the point is," Deimosu said, looking away. "We all have sort of the same basic tools. Hands, feet, eyes...chi. And there's a lot you can do with that."

"And what were you doing with that 'chi' stuff that knocked you out?" Yonjuu asked.

"That was magic," Deimosu said. "It's sort of like...borrowing their powers for your own purposes."

"And does it always hurt that much?" Yonjuu asked curiously.

"Only for me," Deimosu said. "I'm sort of cursed, and it makes magic, painful."

"So what were you doing?" Yaku asked, coming out of hiding to listen.

"I was trying to find a certain place," Deimosu said. "But it's shielded, so magic isn't going to work. I'd kill myself before I could get past the protections. I'll have to try the second option."

"Second option for what?" Yonjuu asked.

Deimosu looked at her for a little bit and then changed the subject.

"I found out what your Mistress does with the girls she takes," he said.

Yonjuu hmphed, keeping her arms still crossed over her chest.

"I don't need to kn..."

"She possesses them," Deimosu said sharply. "No, that's not right. She replaces them."

"What do you mean?" Yonjuu asked.

"A demon can possess a person," Deimosu said. "But when they leave, the person is back to themself. But this...person...what she said. She's like a virus that goes in to the cell and takes it over to make more of itself. Every time you turn over a girl to her, it makes it that much harder to kill her finally."

As he spoke, Yonjuu imagined her object-reader sister being changed into the image of their Mistress. Perhaps she'd even seen her since, terrorizing the other sisters, her own mind and soul replaced by the Mistress.

It made her feel ill.

"But what can we do?" Yonjuu asked.

"Don't worry," Deimosu said. "I think I can find some people to take care of you and Yaku."

"But you take care of me," Yaku said insistently.

"There's something I have to do," Deimosu said. "I don't want you two in the way."

"I'm not in the way," Yaku said. "I can help!"

"It's not going to be safe," the blonde demigod said.

"According to you," Yonjuu said. "We're being hunted by a human virus with lots of money and who knows what else. How much less safe can we get?"

"Because my enemies are gods," Deimosu said quietly.

"Gods...as in..." Yonjuu said slowly.

"As in Zeus, Poseidon and Hades," he told them seriously. "That's my war. And there's no place for spectators in that."

"But..." Yaku said quietly, sniffing. "How will you get back inside here?"

"I got in once," Deimosu said confidently. "I can get in again."

"No, I'll stay here and open the door," Yaku said firmly.

"And I stay where she stays," Yonjuu insisted.

"I don't think you understand everything," Deimosu said. "In order to clear the path, I have to attack heaven and hell. I'm going to have two worlds coming after me and anybody that helped me."

"Well, I suppose it's a good thing that we're in a place that doesn't exist then," Yonjuu said. "Because no one is going to find us here."

Regardless of whether or not it was possible to resist the Mistress, something she knew was one of Nimu's long term goals, but until then, she still had one mission, and that was to make sure Yaku was safe.

Delivering her was up in the air now, that would just harm Nimu's efforts. And if her loyalty to the Mistress was false and inspired by fear. Her loyalty to Nimu was definitely firm.

"This is the best possible place we can be," Yonjuu said. "At least until things calm down."

"I can make you go," Deimosu said. "I only need this place once."

"Then you don't mind if I use it too?" Yonjuu asked.

"And I'm going to leave Yaku alone with you?" Deimosu asked.

"The only two who know how to open the door are you and her," Yonjuu said. "I can't hurt her, so I can't make her open the door. Besides, If what you're saying is true, I can't take her to the Mistress anyway. I'll need to speak to Nimu first."

"That makes me feel a lot better," Deimosu said as Yaku circled around to hide behind him and stick her tongue out at Yonjuu.

"Big Sister Baggage," the younger girl said.

"Would people please stop talking about my chest," Yonjuu asked as she hung her head.

* * *

Kaname and Sousuke caught up to Eija outside and found her running through routines. There was something missing to her normal grace however. Physically there wasn't much difference, but Kaname still felt it wasn't up to Eija's normal standards.

"Who is that woman in there?" Sousuke asked as they approached.

"That's Satomi-san's mother, Eija's human grandmother," Kaname said. "She's been acting like a total asshole since she arrived. Pretending that Eija and Naiki don't exist while doing stuff like tripping her, ruining anything she cooks and stuff like that."

Sousuke blinked and straightened as he considered the comments.

"Your mother has been teaching me the basics of such techniques for dealing with Gauron," Sousuke said. "I did not think it could be so effective."

"You've never dealt with gossips?" Kaname asked.

"Not important right now," Sousuke said. "How do we approach this?"

"I've tried cheering her on, yelling at Nodoka, getting Eija away for some games," Kaname said. "I don't know what else to do? Right now she's even walled up her thoughts. I can just sort of feel impressions, like a loud stereo on the other side of a wall."

Sousuke, nodded and then started walking forward toward where Eija was.

"Satomi-san," Sousuke said, ignoring Kaname blinking at his approaching her directly.

"Yes, Sousuke-kun?" Eija asked, trying to give her normal smile.

"Chidori-san and I were just discussing a tactical problem," he said.

"A...tactical problem?" Eija asked, pausing in her routine now to look at Kaname.

"Don't look at me," the blue-haired Whispered said.

"Your mother has recently been giving me instruction in how to engage in psychological warfare and unbalancing an opponent," Sousuke explained. "But we have not yet discussed a counter-technique, we are currently faced with a situation in which such knowledge might prove useful."

Eija blinked and sat down, looking thoughtful.

"The Buzzing of Hornets or Poisoning the Well?" Eija asked calmly, though there was still a soft tone to her voice that spoke of some caution.

Sousuke sat down across from her and waited patiently. Looking more than a little confused Kaname sat down beside.

_What is he talking about?_ Eija asked Kaname.

_I'm not sure really,_ Kaname asked. _We were talking about...actually we were talking about exactly what he was talking about._

_You are interested in martial arts practice?_ Eija returned with a tone of surprise. _I suppose it would be practical, in case we are not around to protect you. I'll see what I can do._

Kaname was about to respond when Sousuke question interrupted her.

"What is the difference?" Sousuke asked.

"Buzzing of Hornets is tactical," Eija said. "Meant to unbalance people and distract them from subtler details. It is meant to make the opponent believe we are not taking them seriously, so they will 'get serious' which usually means trying too hard and making stupid mistakes."

"Poisoning the Well, we don't do often," Eija said. "It's strategic. If we're taken prisoner or otherwise stuck where we can't free ourselves quickly or can't expect to be rescued. It is a longer run of social sabotage. The aim is to make the target doubt themselves or others around them."

She froze and looked at herself for a moment.

"Is there a counter-strategy?" Sousuke asked.

"Hmm?" Eija asked, looking up. "Yes...umm, you have to pay attention, slow down and think things through. But if your opponent is someone that you respect, the attack is hard to...you're talking about me, aren't you?"

Eija looked over at Kaname and then back to Sousuke.

"Ummm," Kaname said, embarrassed.

"Yes, we were having a tactical discussion on how to counter the attack made against you," Sousuke said. "Given that you are probably the best expert available, I thought to get your advice."

"You asked me for advice on how to cheer me up?" Eija asked in clarification, still a bit confused.

_So, this is weird even for you?_ Kaname asked Eija.

_I'm confused._

_Well, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one he can do that to,_ Kaname noted.


	24. Fraying Secrets

"So, we're going to spend the last three days here in a hotel?" Shinji asked. "Can Satomi-san afford that?"

"Oh, she looks like she's got deep pockets," Mizuki said dismissively. "As long as it gets us away from the old hag. I haven't gotten even one bite of Eija's Greek food the entire time we've been here!"

The three were sitting near the Saotome's gate among their things, organizing them for moving on to the hotel whenever Ranma returned with arrangements. Eija had run off the compound with Kaname and Sousuke following her. They hadn't seen Naiki around anywhere for a bit either.

Kyoko laughed at Mizuki's antics as she looked over toward the two younger kids.

There were still raised voices in the house itself. The two younger Saotomes arguing with the elder, hence why they'd moved their belongings outside to pack.

"Don't you think of anyone else?" Shinji asked Mizuki.

"Of course I do," Mizuki said. "I haven't been teaching Masaru or Izumi new words to tell their grandmother. And I haven't been writing rumors on the walls or cutting up her clothes or drawing beards on all the photographs of her."

"Well, at least your getting a bit more ma..." Shinji started to say.

"I did find her credit card and home address though," Mizuki noted.

* * *

Genma sighed as the latest deliveryman arrived with another set of packages.

"Twenty pink flamingos," the man said as Genma, a very weary and worn out look on his face, reached forward to sign the receipt.

"Put them over by the lawn gnomes," Genma said.

"And where do you want the collection of decorative kitten plates?" a second deliveryman asked, coming up the walk.

"Inside with the crate of Avatar lunchboxes," Genma noted.

"Five thousand boxes of crayola crayons?" another noted.

* * *

"Is she crazy?" Shinji asked.

"Well, most girls go Momma Bear if you hurt someone they care about," Kyoko said.

"Yeah, but this is more like Momma Rabid Wombat," Shinji said as he took in Mizuki's manic-grin.

"Excuse me," a new voice said from the gate. "Is this, oh, hello, Kyoko."

Kyoko looked up and smiled as she recognized Persephone from her previous, rather brief meeting.

"DisPater-san," she said happily. "Eija didn't say you would be here."

"I didn't realize I would be here until earlier today," Persephone said. "Is Eija's mother present?"

"No," Kyoko said. "She's trying to get us some hotel rooms. There's...."

"The old bag is treating Eija and Naiki like trash," Mizuki said bluntly. "So Satomi-san is getting a hotel room away from her. So she can't ruin Eija's meals or trip her or say she shouldn't exist."

Persephone's face became less pleasant as Mizuki rambled on, in spite of Shinji and Kyoko's attempts to stop her. After a few minutes the goddess raised her hand and put her smile back on.

"Excuse me," she said.

"And then..." Mizuki stopped and blinked. "Yeah?"

"Can you tell the Saotomes that I am here?" Persephone said.

"Oh, sure," Mizuki said, standing up from her yet unfinished packing. "Right away."

Persephone smiled at her.

"Loyal yet petty," Persephone said. "That is a strange combination."

"Yeah, Mizuki is harder to understand than Sousuke is," Shinji noted.

"Is Naiki around, I believe she may have tried to call me," Persephone noted.

"Let me see," Kyoko said.

Taking her camera up, she scanned around the landscape, pausing occasionally and clicking pictures where she saw something interesting. Finally she came back around to Persephone and clicked a picture there. Then she pulled it down and started cycling through the pictures.

"Nope, she's not here," the girl behind the glasses said.

"I take it Naiki is often in your pictures?" Persephone asked with a smirk.

"If she's around, she's usually in most of them," Kyoko said.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say she was flirting on Kyoko all the time," Shinji noted.

Persephone smiled again while Kyoko blinked innocently.

"And Eija?" she asked.

"She's talking with Sousuke, and...um...Kaname," Shinji said nervously. "They left a while ago."

"All three of them then?" Persephone asked, noted the immediate uncertainty of the two teenagers. "Well, that's not uncommon for people in Kaname and Eija's position."

"Their...position?" Shinji asked.

"Oh you mean how they know what each other are thinking all the time?" Kyoko asked.

"Very perceptive," Persephone noted pleasantly.

"Wait...how they know..." Shinji started. "Are you saying..."

Whatever he'd been about to say was interrupted as Akane Saotome came storming out of the house up to the gate, stopping dead a look of surprise on her face, as she came within a few yards of Persephone.

"Don't worry, Lt Commander," Persephone said. "I am not here to harm anyone."

"Akane, what's the problem?" Ryuu asked as he came up beside his wife.

He paused earlier than she had, face turning serious. Then he was moving up ahead of her, to stand protectively between the two.

"What gives you the right to come here?" Akane demanded, giving Ryuu a look as she moved up beside him.

"She's Eija's..."

"Mizuki told us that," Akane interrupted sharply.

"I do not have the right, Lt Commander," Persephone said. "I have a responsibility. I believe Naiki may have placed a call for my office some time ago."

It was most likely Naiki at any rate, given that Eija had the direct lines to Persephone's office and Naiki was the only one of the two that would have to go through the immigration office.

"Ranma and I have already had our discussion," Persephone said. "And I would not have a repeat here with these children."

Akane and Ryuu looked over toward Kyoko and Shinji, Mizuki coming out of the house looking rather surprised.

"You're right, of course," Akane said reluctantly, straightening.

"How much longer will this vacation last?" Persephone asked.

"Umm...we're getting on the plane home four days from now," Kyoko said. "After that we have, two more days."

"I see," Persephone said before turning back toward Akane. "I did have a request for Eija, but it can wait that long. If Naiki's business can not wait, then she can contact me at the Temple of the Fates, Ranma and Eija know the number."

"That's it then?" Ryuu asked. "You're leaving?"

"I will not be welcome here yet," Persephone said simply. "However, I do have something for you Saotome-san and Lt Commander."

She reached into her robes and drew out a bag of peaches.

"Shouldn't it be pomegranates?" Kyoko asked, watching the goddess flinch momentarily. "I mean, with your name, and being Greek."

"As I said," Persephone noted dryly. "Very perceptive. These are peaches from the garden of my mother, Demeter."

"They're full of energy," Ryuu noted. "Not chi empowered, something else."

"Indeed," Persephone said. "When freely given, these can be of great benefit, usually health related, but everyone reacts to these things in different ways. It will not go bad unless stolen, so do not fear to keep it for something important. And the seed will not fail to produce once it is planted, the peaches will be uncommonly wholesome, but unfortunately, nothing more."

As they talked, Nodoka walked out of the house, and marched up toward the gate, oblivious to the amount of power Persephone held.

"Get this woman out of here," Nodoka shouted. "I'll not have this r...."

The rest of her words were lost in silence as her mouth worked, but no sound left. Everyone looked toward where Persephone's hand was raised toward the shocked and silent Nodoka, the three teenagers looking shocked.

Persephone turned toward Akane and Ryuu.

"Parlor tricks, I know," she said. "Unworthy of someone of my status. My apologies for stepping on your authority here."

"I understand totally," Akane said, grimly.

Ryuu said nothing but did sigh and shake his head.

Nodoka straightened and composed herself, marching up to the gate that Persephone stood behind. There she waited until the goddess lowered her hand calmly.

"I'll give you your say if you hold your tongue on the matter of secrets that are not ours to give," Persephone said. "Then I will have mine."

Persephone lowered her hands and waited calmly.

"You give me my say and then you tie my hands," Nodoka said. "On my family's own grounds no less."

"There is plenty you could say to me without resorting to further attacks on our granddaughter or your own child," Persephone noted.

"Who are you to lecture me on what I should or should not say," Nodoka said. "What sort of mother are you who raises such a child? What sort of honor can you possibly claim for your clan that has such...things in it. You should be ashamed of yourself for allowing any such things to happen. And you dare to show your face here, in front of me? Such should be punished harshly."

Persephone waited until the woman quieted before speaking herself.

"Indeed, I agree," Persephone said. "I failed one of my children badly. I assumed to much and thought my job had come to an end. But the job never ends, does it? That is something our primitive former selves could never understand. And in that regard, I owe you more than I can probably give."

She reached into her bag and pulled out a peach.

"This is merely a small token," she said. "I understand if your anger at me and mine forbids you to accept it. However, a warning, how you respond is much more important here than whether you accept or deny my apology. You've been working to hurt someone you should protect, I gather Ranma has already been here, but I am not your child. I don't have her patience in this matter. When I hand this over to you, think carefully before you choose the manner of answer."

She held out the peach toward Nodoka. The human woman lashed out with her hand and backhanded the peach out of Persephone's hand. The goddess frowned slightly and watched the progress of the peach as it hurtled through the air and landed lightly in Kyoko's lap.

Persephone smiled lightly and nodded before turning back to Nodoka and frowning severely.

"So be it," Persephone said.

She turned toward Akane and Ryuu then, retrieving the other two peaches.

"Accept these please, as an apology from my House to yours," Nodoka said. "I freely give them to you and your children to serve your purposes."

She passed them on with a smile. Akane hesitantly taking first one and then Ryuu taking the other.

Kyoko stood up with the peach that landed her lap and started to hand it over to Persephone.

"Excuse me," she said. "Here's the other one, Dispater-sama."

Persephone smiled at her and reached out to pat her on the head.

"Never mind, Kyoko," she said. "I gave it to Nodoka, she refused it and it became ownerless until you caught it. This one is yours. A fitting gift from the universe, I'd say."

She smiled and turned about to walk away from the group. She paused after six steps and turned to face Nodoka.

"It will come soon," she said simply.

* * *

As before, the gate started to open up with the sound of many voices and a sparkling of lights. This time opening up over the wild spaces west of a certain military base Deimosu had been to once before.

The blonde demigod stepped out of the gate quickly and moved low, watching to see if anybody had been drawn to the sudden light show. Hopefully, the afternoon sun kept it unremarkable.

He glanced out and saw the outline of the base in the distance.

He waited for the gate behind him to close before standing up and then heard another set of steps coming out of the gate. Looking to the side, he saw Yonjuu come down the ground next to him, though she wasn't able to get quite as close to the dirt as Deimosu was.

"What are you doing here?" Deimosu asked. "Get back to..."

And then the gate closed.

"You might need help," Yonjuu said.

"I don't need help from an akira," Deimosu said. "You'll just get yourself killed."

"How about the help of someone that's been here before," the sensor asked. "I recognize that place. The Mistress sent me here with some product once before."

"Product?" Deimosu asked.

"Some drugs, a sensory deprivation tank," she said. "It was some months back."

"Right before the airplane that was taken hostage?" the demigod asked.

"What airplane?" Yonjuu asked.

"Never mind," Deimosu noted. "Did your Mistress say who it was for?"

"No," Yonjuu said. "But I overheard some chatter while I was here last. Nimu always said to listen to everything, because it all might become useful eventually."

"And what did you hear?" the demigod asked.

"This is a military base," the girl said. "But the people we were dealing with worked for some sort of mercenary group. Something called Amalgam."

"That might actually have been more useful before we left the labyrinth," Deimosu said, reaching into his clothes to draw out a handful of scrolls. "See these, at least one of them has a spell I could use to track down a name like that. I'd hate to think I stole from my mother for no reason."

"Why not use it now?" Yonjuu asked.

"Because I'm still cursed," Deimosu said. "You saw what happened last time I tried to cast that kind of spell. Yaku is supposed to open the gate in a couple of hours, assuming an eight year old girl can monitor time well enough to remember and we're not stuck here until she finishes playing computer games. Which is another reason you should have stayed back there."

"Umm, Yaku is about three years old," Yonjuu said. "I'm twelve by the way."

"Excuse me?" Deimosu asked.

"Well, we're about this tall before we wake up the first time," Yonjuu said, raising her hand to about the height of five year old child.

Deimosu buried his head in the dirt for a moment.

"I can just hear the pedophile jokes now," he said, shaking his head.

"Pardon me?" Yonjuu asked, frowning.

"Nothing," Deimosu said.

"By the way," Yonjuu said. "You still haven't really told me what an akira was."

"Akira, Carrie, Twitch, Firestarter," Deimosu said. "Untrained idiots who think that they can blast through anything because they were born 'special'."

"I'm not untrained," Yonjuu protested.

"Untrained enough," Deimosu muttered. "At least you're not a panda."

"I'm not that big!" Yonjuu responded sharply.

"A panda is someone who knows just enough to use a spell or stuff," Deimosu explained. "But doesn't really understand how it works. Though I've only heard my mom use it that way, so that just might be her term for it."

"I don't get it," the sensor said.

"Neither do any of my siblings," the demigod said. "When we head over there, stick with me."

Yonjuu nodded.

"Of course I'll stick with you," she muttered. "Until I get a weapon, all I can do is tell you when something's coming."

"Well, I can name at least two weapons you already have," Deimosu muttered, standing up.

"I am not smothering someone with my freakish chest," Yonjuu said as she stood up behind Deimosu.

"D-cups aren't freakish...just unusual," Deimosu said.

"But you should see my sisters!" Yonjuu said. "Slim shoulders, five foot two and five foot four when they finish. Long slender legs, perfect handful breasts. Not a single bit of wasted flesh or mass. Perfect elegant beauties."

"Meanwhile," Yonjuu continued. "My shoulders look like they belong on an AS, my hips and butt are huge and I'm just about four inches shorter than YOU and my legs aren't much longer than my sisters'."

"It's called a voluptuous build," Deimosu said. "If you were blonde, my sister would be all over you in a heartbeat."

"Well, I'm glad I'm attractive to lesbians at least," Yonjuu grumbled. "I suppose it makes sense that their tastes are somewhat less sophisticated."

"Let's just get on with this," the demigod said.

* * *

"I don't know exactly what you're doing going so far around, but it's getting me downwind of the place, so I don't particularly care," Yonjuu said.

"That's the reason," Deimosu said. "My sister is sort of like you. She's got a bit of shark in her."

"Oh, I wish I had a shark's senses," Yonjuu said. "That's like the king of sensory platforms. Electrical, motion, smell across miles and miles, good vision. I can do just about everything except the electrical."

"You can detect motion?" Deimosu asked.

"Well, not directly," Yonjuu explained. "But I have a very good sense of touch and hearing, so I can fake it. One of my other sisters, from my batch, is a motion detector. She's pretty much impossible to sneak up on, but she gets headaches in the rain."

Yonjuu stopped and took in a deep breath.

"Smell something?" Deimosu asked.

"This is the edge of the wind coming off the base," Yonjuu said. "I can smell the Arms-Slaves and tanks. Gun oil. Something's missing, the machine that was here last time is gone. Never saw it, but it sort of smelled like an AS with something."

"Damn it," the blonde fighter said. "I think that's what I was looking for."

"How do you plan on stealing an AS?" Yonjuu asked. "Are you an AS pilot?"

"No," Deimosu said. "I only need part of it."

He started to move in closer to the base, moving cautiously. Yonjuu came in behind him, trying to copy his motions. As they moved closer, other smells started to slip out through the overpowering stench of the vehicles.

She started to smell the overall mass of people when they got within five hundred feet or so, when Deimosu started crawling along the ground and she as well. After that she quickly started distinguishing individual scents on the air.

"One of the Amalgam people is here," she whispered.

"Really?" the martial artist asked. "Can you describe him?"

"Not Korean," Yonjuu said with a shrug. "I can't get much more than that right now. I've smelled him before, but I haven't seen him before."

"Anybody else 'not korean'?" Deimosu asked with a sigh.

"No," Yonjuu said.

"All right," Deimosu said. "Go back to where you started smelling the base, I'll meet you there."

"And what are you planning on doing?" Yonjuu asked.

"Doesn't matter," Deimosu responded before slipping forward. "Just wish I was as good at this as Eija is."

With that statement he took a deep breath and stood up into a strange stance before he started to actually fade to Yonjuu's senses. He didn't vanish, but it was like every part of his signature was weaker than before.

Then he dashed forward, if Yonjuu didn't know he was there to be aware of, she might have actually overlooked him.

But only might.

Slowly, she backed away quietly and moved towards the spot he'd told her to wait at.

Deimosu himself moved up to the wall at a run, pausing and dropping to the ground any time he noticed an eye come his way. Eija could probably have walked the extent of the base without even breaking a sweat, but he'd never been one to hide his light under a bushel. At least he was better than Naiki was.

Then again, if Naiki wanted, she could have made an earthquake from further out. Of course, he had his own specialty and a bit of an idea how to make a bit larger bang than normal.

Getting over the wall was easy enough, with the umisen running, and then he had plenty of cover. This wasn't the first time he'd faced the effort of sneaking around an armed camp. Though this was the first time he'd had time to plan things out.

Hecate had said there was nothing that existed for enhancing chi yet, but he knew that was wrong. Crystals worked, granted, most of what people used crystals for was to convert chi into either mana or pishogue to make white or black magic easier, more efficient and less dangerous.

Using crystals just to enhance chi wasn't something often practiced. Martial artists and psionics were the only ones that made actual use of chi as the main source of power. Psionics wasn't something people taught much yet, hence the plethora of akiras, and martial artists for the most part hadn't thought much of crystals, mostly perceiving them as fragile or cheating.

Ranma Satomi was a rarity in that she'd looked for every tool possible and had made a habit of mixing them in ways not usually thought of.

And she'd passed that on.

Both black and white magic used circles in some of their rituals, and there were circles in the theory of chi as well. All he needed was a big empty space where nobody much was paying attention, and he knew where to find one of those.

Getting to the vehicle hangar was easy enough. He reached into his pocket and grabbed a bag of powdered crystal which he started using to draw the circle.

After the circle, came the hexagrams.

As it finished, he stood in the center of a crystalline design and looked about. Taking a deep breath, he called forth the touch of electricity that was his own.

He thrust it down into the circle, starting east in Zhen, the direction of excitation and the arousal of energies. From there he directed it southeast, watching it spark through the crystals. The powder was melting together into glass as the lightning spun around him, growing brighter and brighter.

Slowly, the lighting came back around to meet itself in the circle. He called it back into himself, briefly, wincing at how much the energy had been magnified by both the crystal and the circle. And then he thrust his hands upward, throwing the power up into the sky.

The power left him, and he gave a brief sigh of relief. For a few seconds it appeared that he had been wrong in his assumption that the basic concepts of circles would remain the same.

But then it came.

Roaring down out of the sky all across the camp surrounding Deimosu.

From a distance, Yonjuu jumped back as lightning cascaded downward, bolt after bolt into the base out of a clear blue sky. Ammo and fuel erupted all over the base and she could hear the alarms and chaos clearly.

"Did...did he do that?" she wondered.

Her wondering stopped as Deimosu came running to her position, carrying an unconscious man over his shoulder.

He slammed to a stop near her and turned about to look at the dwindling bolts of lightning.

"Okay, that worked a little bit better than I thought," Deimosu said.

"What did you do?" Yonjuu asked.

"I tried to combine a few processes," Deimosu said. "I wasn't sure how well it would work, so I put a bit of extra effort into."

"I daresay that you put a little too much extra effort into it," Yonjuu said, pointing toward the base.

She winced as a particularly large explosion ripped up into the darkening sky.

"It did send everybody running like rabbits," Deimosu said with a smirk. "And this rabbit came running out right in plain sight."

"Let's just go wait for Yaku," Yonjuu said. "And if I hear another remark about being an akira after that...performance"

"There's a difference," Deimosu protested.

"How about a 'panda' then?" the girl continued.

* * *

"Yaku." Deimosu noted more than an hour later. "Is late."

"I was useful," Yonjuu pointed out.

"That's fine," the martial artist said, moving toward their prisoner. "I think I'll do this here, no need for Yaku to see this."

"Yes, interrogation," Yonjuu said distastefully. "I've...seen them. I've never done one before."

"Let me handle it," Deimosu said, nudging the prisoner.

"You've interrogated people before?" the dark-haired sensor asked.

"Yes," the blonde said, frowning. "If you don't want to watch."

"I've probably seen worse," the girl answered. "What do you need him for anyway?"

"I need to find a way to increase my chi for a fight," he answered.

"You need to be more powerful than that?" Yonjuu asked, pointing out toward the smoking, smoldering ruins.

"I need to be more powerful than I am personally and able to access that power in something a lot less than ten minutes," Deimosu explained.

"Oh, yes, I can see where that time limit might be a problem," Yonjuu said.

"Stay quiet now," the martial artist warned her.

Deimosu nodded and bent over his prisoner, reaching out a hand with splayed fingers. Yonjuu smelled the ozone and saw the momentary flash as electricity arched into the unconscious man's body.

He awoke with a shriek of pain and then glanced around to see Deimosu and Yonjuu sitting and watching him.

"What the hell is this?" he demanded. "I'm surrounded by a bunch of kids."

"Are you part of Amalgam?" Deimosu asked.

Instantly, the man's eyes widened fractionally as he looked between the two.

"You work for Kuno," he said, growing more than a little nervous. "Did one of your freaks pull off that sudden lightning storm?"

He looked over toward Yonjuu nervously.

"Actually," Deimosu said. "That was me."

To illustrate the point, he sent another jolt of electricity into the man's body. He winced and jumped in pain, but then he laughed.

"So, what're you going to do?" the man asked. "Kuno doesn't teach you freaks anything, you're cannon fodder. Byproduct in her private experiments. So I'm not afraid of your amateurish attempts."

"I'm not one of Kodachi Kuno's people," the martial artist said quietly.

An arc of electricity ripped out from Deimosu's finger into the man again. This time there was more than just pain. For a brief moment the man's vision stopped. He flailed about, backing away from Deimosu in panic until his vision started to clear.

"The nervous system runs on electricity," the martial artist said. "It runs the rest of the body. I'm electro-kinetic. And I'm no akira I can short out any part of you I want. Temporarily or permanently."

A small burst of electricity ripped from his hand into the prisoner and the man felt his arm go numb for a moment.

"So what," the prisoner said, much less sure. "Are you going to shut down my lungs or heart if I don't talk?"

"I'm not going to kill you until I'm done," Deimosu said. "That wouldn't do me any good. I want to know where I can find one of your special machines."

"Special machines?" the prisoner asked.

"It's a machine that lets an AS pilot turn emotion into power," the martial artist noted.

"You want a lambda driver," the man asked. "I don't care what you do to me, it's not enough to get me turn that over."

A zap of lightning shocked into the prisoner's abdomen, making him dance with obvious jittering pain.

Yonjuu, from where she watched, wrinkled her nose in disgust as the scent of urine reached her.

The prisoner shuffled uncomfortably and swallowed as he took in the teenager that seemed to have so much control over what his body did.

Another zap of electricity and this time some of the pain didn't go away. He looked down at his arm and lifted it gingerly, waiting for the burning pain to fade away as it did before.

"I just killed the nerve at your elbow," Deimosu said.

"Why don't you target something more vital to the male ego?" Yonjuu asked.

The prisoner looked down toward his waste and crossed his legs desperately. Looking from Yonjuu to Deimosu. The demigod glanced toward Yonjuu himself and shrugged at her suggestion. Then returned to looking at the prisoner and held out both his hands, letting electricity arc between them.

"Her idea sounds pretty good," Deimosu noted. "There's more I could do, of course. Burn out part of the spinal column, take away a sense."

At this, he noticed Yonjuu uncomfortably back away from him.

"I can give you a facial twitch if I wanted," the martial artist bragged.

That was a bit of an exaggeration. He couldn't really do that on purpose, he was stretching the limits of his control as it was. However, the issue here wasn't what he could really do, it was what he believed that Deimosu could do. What he imagined. As soon as Deimosu's limits became defined, then the impact was dulled.

"I just need to know where to find a lambda driver or the plans," Deimosu said. "The longer it takes for me to get that answer, the closer you get to spending your life as an incontinent, impotent, crippled lump of meat."

A stroke of lightning reached out toward the man then, and this time he lost feeling in his left foot.

The look of fear that came with this most recent shock disgusted Deimosu. It was never something he liked to see, but it did say that he was meeting his goal.

* * *

Yonjuu watched as the finally light display faded away and Deimosu was left standing over a body. She'd seen a rather large cascade of lightning running through the guys head and body.

"Did you have to do that?" Yonjuu asked.

"If were just the possibility of them telling someone what I'm doing, I'd let him live," Deimosu said. "But last time we were here, they almost killed one sister, and the other almost killed herself healing us. Amalgam hurt my family, intentionally."

Deimosu didn't bother to say that the fact she and Yaku refused to leave was also a deciding factor in that. He wasn't going to have an unnecessary risk to either of them.

"Where did you learn to interrogate like that?" Yonjuu asked.

"Most of the hand to hand physical techniques in our fighting style comes from other styles," the demigod said. "The basis of the Satomi style is getting in your opponent's head and using his mind against you. My mother tried to keep us out of harm's way and out of battle, but there was too much around us to avoid."

He sighed and shook his head.

"You're saying that she trained you," Yonjuu said. "But she didn't want you to fight for her?"

"No," Deimosu said. "She fought for us. Now it's my turn to fight for her."

* * *

Yaku watched as Yonjuu and Deimosu came back in through the gate, having remembered when she stopped to get some water.

Both looked rather upset, so she guessed that things must not have gone well.

"Big brother, did you find anything?" Yaku asked.

"Yeah," Deimosu said. "Someone gave me some directions."

* * *

"'A TV with no volume control'?" Naiki muttered. "Can you believe she called me that."

"Yes, I can," Ranma told her daughter with a smile.

"You too?" the sea demon snapped. "I'm a very skilled martial artist. I have to be in control of myself at all times. I don't mentally babble. I'm complete control of my thoughts."

"What's Tessa say about that?" Ranma asked.

"She said something about needing some quiet and walled me off again," Naiki said. "I can't wait to learn how to do that so when she asks me for workout advice, she can knock on a blank block of thought herself."

"If she's asking you for advice on stuff like that," Ranma said. "Maybe it's time you took some lessons in how to teach."

The red-headed woman pulled out her cell phone as she and Naiki rounded the last corner to the Saotome house and dojo.

"Kurz," she said as the other end picked up. "Go ahead and bring the car, we got a hotel."

She noticed the bags packed more or less neatly at the gate and nodded in approval that the kids were so efficient.

"The threesome isn't here," Naiki said. "They're off that way somewhere. At least that's where the trail still goes, I guess they could have moved since we left."

"Their bags are here," Ranma said. "The others must have put them together. I see yours too."

"Persephone's been here," Naiki said suddenly. "Damn it, I missed her."

"Why did you need to talk to her?" Ranma asked, narrowing her eyes. "I thought you didn't like her."

Naiki bit her lip and looked around nervously.

"Mara asked me to get some information on Hecate," Naiki said.

"Mara asked you," Ranma said narrowing her eyes.

"She's not letting me actually join the hunt," Naiki said quickly. "She says the Rakshasha will do that, we're just supposed to get info and then stay out of the way."

"I'm going to say the same thing," Ranma said.

"You're not upset?" Naiki asked.

"I don't like it," Ranma said. "But you basically joined a military organization when you became a demon. I turned mercenary after you three were born, so I know about following the rules. There's a time not to follow them, but this doesn't sound like one."

"But she's the one behind all this, behind what happened to you," Naiki said.

"And you think I want you in her path?" Ranma snapped quickly. "I already have Deimosu to worry about. Do you know how many times I've run the spells to find him? How many butterflies have come back? I can't keep him out of the way, but I can try to protect you and Eija."

"What if this is something so big that there's no getting out of the way?" Naiki asked.

"Then you do what I taught you to do," Ranma said quietly. "But don't go looking for stuff yet. We're talking about someone who easily beat me. Made it so I couldn't fight at all."

"Yeah, but you said I'm stronger than you were at this age," Naiki said.

"Not that much stronger," Ranma said.

They reached the gate and started walking inside. Ranma saw Ryuu standing at the door waiting for them, she paused at the end of the path and bowed.

"Ryuu," she said.

"There was a woman here," Ryuu said.

"Naiki smelled her on the way up here," Ranma noted. "I'm guessing she was here to see my daughter?"

"She wasn't human," Ryuu said. "Now that I'm paying attention, neither is Naiki. I'll bet Eija is the same. Who...what are these people?"

"I don't think we have much time," Ranma said, glancing over Ryuu's shoulder to ascertain the placement of the other kids. "No offense, but I'll tell Akane first."

"Is there any risk to my family?" Ryuu asked.

"The jerks that attacked my mom are criminals," Naiki snapped suddenly. "Two of them are in prison already. What good that is."

"I'd like to have known who we were protecting your girls against," Ryuu said.

"There's no one actively chasing my girls or Kaname," Ranma said. "Otherwise I'd have told you and Akane."

"Well, of the two of us, the surprise on our end was probably the more harmful," Ryuu said. "Have you seen Eija yet?"

"No, I think she's still with Kaname and Sousuke," Ranma said. "She should be fine with them."

"And what is going on with that?" Ryuu asked. "Not to pry, but I figured you were the last person that would be happy with such a thing."

"Kaname and Eija have a special case," Ranma said with some difficulty. "They had an accident that's left them telepathically linked."

"That explains a few things," Ryuu noted. "Akane's keeping Nodoka out of the way. She wanted to talk to you, but I insisted."

"Understand," Ranma noted. "The car is coming, so we'll be gone soon."

"I want a spar before you leave, Ranma," Ryuu said. "I want to see the directions you've taken the Senken and the Saotome-Ryu."

"I've branched off from pure martial arts," Ranma said. "I might not be as good as I could have been."

"I heard, a feng shih," Ryuu noted. "Good reputation too. And you know as well as I do, any extra knowledge just makes you more dangerous."

Ranma shrugged and smiled.

"Come over in a few days, I'll tell you and Akane what's going on and we'll have that spar," Ranma noted. "Naiki, start getting the other kids."

"Right," Naiki said.

* * *

Melissa walked up to the auditorium room, aware that there fifty girls beyond that door. Outside stood a Mithril intelligence division officer and one of tactical's officers from headquarters. She could tell what they were going to ask just by the frustrated look on their face.

"Sergeant Major Melissa Mao," the tactical officer. "I was wondering if you could tell us what's going on here."

"The Captain asked me to brief these girls on what's coming from here," Mao said. "Commander Mardukas and Lt. Commander Kalinin have their own concerns and..."

"And you're the only remaining person on base cleared to have the full story on these girls," the intelligence operative finished for her with a smile.

"I was going to say, I wasn't busy because my team is on other assignments," Mao noted.

"Sergeant Major," the tactical officer said questioningly. "Who requested the operation to rescue these girls?"

"Intelligence," Mao said. "Don't you have the proposal and field reports?"

"Yes, we do," the intelligence man said. "But those weren't in until after the operation came down."

"That's not a first," the sergeant major said. "There's always off the books ops."

"But there've been a lot more recently," tactical said. "And curiously, it's hard to find who in either intelligence or tactical ordered these to begin with."

"That's the point of an off the books op, isn't it?" Mao asked. "Now I have a briefing to give."

"The briefing can wait," the tactical officer said. "There's another whole division of Mithril that's being kept off the books, isn't their Sergeant Major?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Mao said firmly.

"Oh good," a peppy new voice said. "I'm not late."

The three turned to see a cheerful seeming Japanese woman walking down the hallway. Her long black hair hung around her face as she pushed up the large glasses onto her nose. She was wearing a civilian uniform of some sort, long black skirt, white shirt and brown vest with a red necktie. Over that she had a tan overcoat.

"Who are you?" the tactical officer asked.

"I know you," the intelligence operative noted. "You were an agent for the British, some sort of retrieval specialist. Aren't you retired."

"Just like Commander Mardukas," the woman said with a smile. "Now, Commander Trautman and Mr. Graves, I have communiques here from Lord Malloy. You are both to report to headquarters immediately."

She handed each of them a folded sheet of paper and smiled, waiting for the two men to respond. As they looked over the messages, they came down to the end and frowned as they looked up at the newcomer.

"Are there any questions?" the woman asked.

"I suppose not," Mr. Graves said reluctantly, starting to walk away. Trautman was not far behind him.

"And you are?" Mao asked as they left.

"Yomiko Readman," the girl said turning toward Mao. "Psyche Division. Secretary to the Northeast Asian Regional Director."

"You're Miss Satomi's secretary," Melissa said with a smirk.

"That's right," Miss Readman said. "I have not yet met with Miss Satomi, so for the moment, I am here only to observe in her place or clarify any questions. This proceeding is under your command still."

"As long as you understand where things stand then," Mao said.

"I'm sorry about the problem earlier," Yomiko said. "We weren't aware that they were going to contact you until recently."

"Otherwise you'd have cut them off first so they couldn't give me any ideas," Mao asked noting the secretary's embarrassed smile. "Let's go, we have a room full of genetically engineered super-girls to talk to."

"Let's get to it," Yomiko said with a smile.

Mao and Yomiko walked into the auditorium, closing the door behind them and sealing it. Yomiko took a few sheets of blank paper from somewhere and tossed them at the door. Mao and the other girls watched as the paper stuck the door, holding tight to it.

Clearing her throat as Yomiko sat down to the side, Mao walked to the podium.

"Well," Mao said. "Here's the situation. We don't think we can place you all in the same place."

There was a small rumble of assent to that comment.

"We have foster families ready to take you in throughout the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Japan and Australia," Mao said. "Some are willing to take in three of you, but for most it is in ones or twos. I've been assured that these are families with a history of paranormal abilities and they will be able to help you learn about how to properly make use of your gifts."

"We don't already?" one of the girls asked.

"Teach you better," Mao clarified. "As to the medical situation. We've figured out what was done to the older of you."

She looked down at her papers and read them over.

"The docs say you're suffering from hyperthyroidism," Melissa said, reading the word carefully. "You've got too many thyroid hormones in your system and it's making your body tear itself apart. There's a permanent treatment, but you will have to take a pill once a day for the rest of your life."

A girl raised her hand and Mao pointed at her.

"Why would we go from once a month to once a day?" she asked.

"Because the treatment you're taking right now is expensive to make and expensive to keep," Mao said simply. "And from what I'm seeing here, it'll get less effective, so it'll kill you eventually anyway. Basically, it's easier to control a lack of a hormone than it is too much of something."

"The doctors are going to speak to each of you individually before you leave or have the surgery," Mao explained. "So you'll get all the real details then. Now, on to what I'm here for. I'm here to extend an offer of joining Mithril to Nimu Ichi and any of the Ni's who desire to join."

"What about the rest of us!" Sanya San asked, standing up. Other Sans stood up across the area. "The San batch are supreme in ability, unmatched in physicality. We are the best..."

"You're physically fourteen or fifteen," Mao said. "But I hear you're all no more than ten. That was a lot of debate over giving the Ni's and Ichi this offer. We don't send children into battle if we can avoid it. It doesn't mean you can't join later, and we'll be keeping tabs of you and providing tutors, but for now. Go be kids."

Reluctantly, the Sans sat down, crossing her arm.

"Now, let's get to the families available to take you in," Mao said.

It was sometime later as the briefing came to a close that Nimu started to walk up to Mao.

"If I accept the offer to join," she said. "Will you be sending me against Kodachi?"

"I can't say for sure," Mao said. "I don't make missions, but I can't help but assume that your experience in studying her organization will be considered."

Nimu nodded and started to turn away, but Mao stopped her.

"Nimu," she said. "They're trying to clear some red-tape. If you want, you can be cleared as guardian for three of your sisters."

"What would happen if I'm their guardian and I decide to join Mithril," she asked.

"Then I think Tessa is going to provide living quarters on base here for now," Mao said.

"From everything I can tell," Nimu said. "You've done well by me and my sisters. Thank you."

"It's what we're here for," Melissa said with a smile.


	25. Convergence Before the Storm

Ranma looked down from the hotel balcony to see the teenagers moving down to the beach again Kurz and Sousuke were both there. She smelled a burst of sulfur and turned to look over at Mara appearing on the balcony.

"How long have you been here?" Ranma asked.

"Off and on," Mara said carefully. "Naiki's spoiling to go off hunting Hecate."

"I know," Ranma said, bitterly. "My kids are funny that way."

"That's why I'm here," Mara said. "A lightning storm wiped a military base in Korea off the map a few days ago. I understand your children were held there a few months ago."

Ranma sat down on the balcony railing.

"He attacked that base?" Ranma asked disappointed. "They don't present a threat. He has no reason to attack them."

"There's one reason," Mara said. "Your human carapaces, these machines you use to enhance your chi. We haven't used such weapons since the Doublet System was put into place. With such a thing, even a third category God or Demon can challenge the first category."

"And he saw one there," Ranma noted. "Thank you, Mara. And your reason for doing this?"

"Because I'm a little tired of walking on eggshells around you," Mara said honestly.

A knock came on the door and Ranma looked toward it, standing up from the balcony and walking across the room.

"Company calling?" Mara asked casually.

"I need to explain some things to some people," Ranma said, opening the door to reveal Akane and Ryuu.

Akane looked past Ranma to the blonde in the balcony and frowned.

"Are we interrupting something?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.

"I already have enough Satomi attention. Speaking of which," Mara said. "Is there a way to get your daughter to stop grabbing my butt? I'm supposed to be her teacher. not her squeeze toy."

"Dye your hair," Ranma said over her shoulder. "Akane, Ryuu, this is Mara."

"Ranma," Akane said. "She reeks of black magic."

"That's because she's a demon," the red-head said. "Mara, do you mind, this is private."

"Right, going," Mara said swiftly before vanishing in a puff of smoke. "I think Naiki's planning on visiting Persephone today, I'll go with her to make sure she comes right back."

"Thank you again," Ranma said.

"Why are you dealing with demons?" Akane demanded stepping forward.

"Naiki's a demon, isn't she," Ryuu said. "She has somewhat the same sort of aura."

"And Eija's a goddess," Ranma said. "I meant to tell you this before there was any issue. Things have...gotten in the way."

Ranma gestured for them to come and sit down.

Akane looked around and immediately noticed the paper charms on the wall securing privacy against eavesdropping. She moved to sit on one of the couches, Ryuu sitting beside her.

"I learned about all this a few weeks after we had dinner at Kasumi's," Ranma said. "So that's why I didn't tell you anything. I just didn't know."

"Didn't know what?" Akane asked.

"Who the fathers of my children were," Ranma said.

* * *

Naiki paced a bit as she waited. Eija had given her the telephone number for the Temple of Fates, but she wanted to talk to Persephone face to face.

Mara had said she could help Naiki teleport there, especially since the young demoness needed to practice that anyway, but she hadn't told Naiki how yet. So she was stuck wasting her time with waiting.

Of course she knew why Mara was doing it this way. Her mentor didn't want her running off after Hecate when she got the information. Mara was as bad as her mother in that way.

The burst of smoke next to her announced the arrival of her mentor.

"Okay," Mara said. "We're ready to go."

"So, you're going to teach me how to teleport?" Naiki asked.

"Not yet," the older demoness said. "I'm just going to teleport you over there, so you know what it's like. I'll teach you later."

Naiki crossed her arms and pouted.

"Doesn't work kid," Mara said with a smirk. "Now, take my hand...and just my hand."

Mara gingerly held out her hand and arched the rest of her body away from it.

With a disappointed look, Naiki reached out to take Mara's hand. The martial artist opened her senses up and watched carefully how the other demon was about to work the pishogue.

"Here we go," Mara said.

The demonic energy twisted out, like it had when they'd come from Nifelheim to Earth. Only this time, instead of moving in a spiral through the barrier between the two realms, Mara and Naiki's energy twisted across the edge, skipping like a stone over a lake.

For a brief moment, she smelled the comfortable scent of Nifelheim's sulfurous air and then they were coming back into the thinner air of Earth. As smoke cleared the scene of a Tokyo street came into view around them.

Standing up above them was a hill with a walled compound carrying a shrine on top.

"This is the Temple of the Fates," Mara said. "It's not a place you and I can just walk into. There are wards, luck charms and a damn annoying robot."

"So we just sit out here and wait?" Naiki asked.

"There's a phone over there," Mara said, pointing down the street. "You have the number, call and tell them you're here."

That didn't seem necessary as the door opened and a tall, tanned woman with platinum hair walked out and froze on seeing Mara standing there.

"Mara, what in Kami-Sama's name are you doin...gack!" Urd declared as the other demon slipped up close to her.

"Mmmm, that scent," Naiki said. "You're related to Hild-sama aren't you."

"Urd is Hild's daughter," Mara said with a smirk as she watched Naiki inspect the confused goddess.

"Would you like a virgin sacrifice, Urd-sama?" Naiki asked sweetly.

"Passionate...little thing isn't she," Urd noted.

"Hild-sama said exactly the same thing," Naiki responded excitedly.

"Urd!" a childish voice declared. "What are you doing in the middle of the..."

Skuld stopped as she noticed Mara and immediately backed away reaching for a hammer.

"What are you doing here?" Skuld demanded.

Urd pushed Naiki away, or tried at least, finding the green-haired demoness somewhat flexible.

"I'm here with her," Mara said, pointing to Naiki. "She needs to talk to Persephone."

The last bit was emphasized loudly, bringing a sudden dawning expression to Naiki's face. Reluctantly, she stepped away from Urd and looked toward the little kid with the mechanical hammer.

"Well, later, Urd-san," Naiki said with a longing smile then turning toward Skuld. "Hey, kid, is Persephone here?"

Urd sidled over toward Mara and whispered toward her childhood friend turned rival agent.

"You enjoyed that, didn't you?" Urd accused.

"I'm looking at thirty minutes or more of her not pawing me," Mara said.

She frowned at that comment and started to work it out, she was a little bit behind Urd on that thought.

"That means you think I'm more attractive than you are," Urd said with a smirk.

Meanwhile, Skuld was trying to shift her hammer forward or back as Naiki held it solid in her hand and continued to talk to her.

Keiichi walked out to see what the disruption was about and sighed in frustration as he saw two demons standing past the gate.

"It's going to be one of those days," he said.

* * *

Deimosu stepped out of the gate, alone this time. Yonjuu had stayed back to make sure Yaku was safe and opened the gate on time. Deimosu had to admit that he could actually have used her this time.

The factory in front of him was small compared to others he'd found himself sneaking through in the past. Abandoned factories were a favorite place for cultists to congregate and carry out their rituals.

It was almost familiar territory.

Deimosu doubted that this particular factory was on any address lists. It was rather deep in the mountains somewhere in Russia, next to a quarry or mine of some sort, another favorite of fanatics-r-we.

Like his mother, they had banked primarily on being unnoticed. There was security, but not much. From what he could tell, they probably ran a skeleton crew to keep the number of people that knew about this place to a minimum.

Which was just perfect for him.

He slipped down through the trees into the small valley, moving through the shadows.

* * *

"Gods and demons," Akane said shaking her head. "Only you, Ranma."

"I think the problem is that it isn't only me," Ranma told them. "When it was Nerima, I was the focus. This time, I was just a stepping stone. I'm already discarded and forgotten."

She took a deep breath.

"There were times I hoped it would stay that way," Ranma muttered.

"Everybody who's ignored you has a tendency to lose," Ryuu reminded her.

Ranma nodded to that with a slight smile.

"That's still mostly true," she agreed. "And we'll see about that later."

"Eija's a goddess, Naiki's a demoness," Akane said. "What about Deimosu?"

Ranma leaned back.

"Deimosu's gone looking to avenge me," Ranma said. "He found out somehow. You can't find him with magic, though I still tried, and he's been trained to survive in the wild, so he's not going to show up on the grid."

"At least he can't get off the island without..." Akane started to say before stopping herself. "Wait, what am I saying. I'll bet he can swim across the Sea of Japan, can't he?"

"Possibly," Ranma noted.

"Are you just waiting then?" Ryuu asked. "If it was me..."

"Tell, me Ryuu," Ranma said. "You do work for Psyche, don't you?"

"I've freelanced a couple of times for them," Ryuu said. "Last thing I got from them was just to keep an eye out for..."

"A six-foot tall Greek-Japanese boy, about seventeen years old," Ranma said. "Right, I put that out."

"You're Psych?" Akane asked.

"Yeah, I handle the requests for this region now," Ranma said. "Moving up in the world. I've had some leads, but so far it's either been nothing or too late. He was in a town fair getting chased by some girls that ended up being Kodachi's daughters, then he vanished."

Ranma glanced toward where Mara had vanished.

"Mara told me that something that sounded like it could be him happened in North Korea a couple of days ago," Ranma said. "I'll be putting together a mission for that just now, but he'll probably be gone already."

Ranma sighed.

"I might be able to find him if I picked up and left," she said. "But I can't just pick up and leave anymore."

"I'll see if anybody has heard anything strange," Akane said. "I have decent clearance. I can get a look at some reports for you."

"Do that, please," Ranma said.

* * *

Persephone vaguely remembered what a teenager was like. It had been more than fifty years since any of her children had been through that phase, but she was currently having less than fond memories of that time.

Naiki was here, on an important errand. An errand with personal importance to Naiki. And yet, she couldn't seem to take her eyes off of Urd.

"So, I understand you have an interest in Miss Tokiwa," Persephone said.

Attention was instantly off Urd. Persephone smiled knowingly. That would be a somewhat touchy situation.

"Who s...umm, what are you talking about?" Naiki asked.

Mara produced a notebook and started writing something down.

"Oh," Belldandy said. "Kyoko-chan? She was very nice."

The other goddess smiled as she passed out cups of tea to everybody at the table.

"Now, before we go on to the important information," Persephone said. "Naiki, do you have a telepathic link with someone the way Eija does."

"Yeah," the sea demoness said.

"Is she listening right now?" the Queen of the Dead asked.

"Let me check," Naiki said.

* * *

_TESSA! TESSA! I NEED YOU TO PAY ATTENTION TO SOMETHING! ARE YOU THERE?_

Captain Testarossa picked up her head from her desk and rolled her eyes.

_Naiki, remember what I said about volume control?_

_

* * *

_

"Nope, she's not listening," Naiki said bold-facedly.

Ah the youth who thought they could fool their elders.

"Well then," Persephone said, "I suppose it's safe to start dealing with your business then."

"That's it?" Naiki said. "You're just going to turn it over, just because I ask?"

The various goddesses at the table held an embarrassed silence and even Mara pretended not to here the question.

"Nifelheim and Asgard do not share information," Belldandy said with clear regret for the situation.

"But that's not what's happening here," Persephone said. "Right now, I'm sharing information with my granddaughter and her teacher."

"But, I'm a..." Naiki stopped as several people cleared their throats. "Could someone explain this to me?"

"Perhaps later," Persephone said, looking over toward Mara.

* * *

Deimosu had been right about the security measures. And most, if not all, the security and workers were unconscious now. He had free run of the factory.

There were several papers and files about how the Arm-Slaves being put together in the factory. There were only two or three in the process of being completed right now. And it didn't look like assembly went quickly with the small group of techs and workers.

He saw some of the components for the lambda driver ready to place onto one of the ASes, great spikes of metal that were at least ten feet in length. He wasn't about to get those out of here.

Frowning, Deimosu looked to the schematics he found.

"I'll have to settle for these," he said frowning. "Though, I think I can spend some time on those..."

Deimosu looked at the plans he'd grabbed and turned them one way or the other. A scroll showing martial arts techniques he could read without trouble. He had a little bit more trouble with magical diagrams or the Ba Gua chart.

Which probably gave Yonjuu's panda accusation more than a little credence. As much as he didn't want to admit it.

However, the engineering and circuitry schematics he couldn't make much sense out of. The similarities of lines of power between magic circles and the circuitry was about the only thing that made much sense.

He couldn't tell if he was looking at a computer system or the lambda driver or something else.

Yonjuu leaned over it with him was clearly looking knowing and interested only because she wanted to hide how lost she was.

"So...this is..." Yonjuu asked.

"There's power here," Deimosu said. "And it runs through these lines channeled one way or another dependent on what the machine's trying to accomplish."

"And that is?" Yonjuu asked.

"I don't really know," Deimosu grumbled. "Damn it, this is useless, a waste of time."

He tossed the blueprints aside irritably, not noticing as they landed behind him, covering the holodisplay coming off the Athenian computer, neatly interrupting Yaku's game.

"Hey," Yaku said, looking over at the two older kids with a pouting expression.

She moved to pull the blueprints off and get back to her game playing or otherwise fiddling about with the computer. However, as she looked over the plans, she paused.

"Cool," she said. "Is this what you want to make?"

She focused on the designs for a little bit, staring at them. And then the whispers started to come as her eyes faded out.

* * *

On Earth, in Meridia, Tessa had her own project. The Danaan had a transfer and response omni-sphere at it's heart. In extreme circumstances, she, or another Whispered, could take the place of the AI and control the ship directly, virtually become the ship's mind. That connection was accomplished by putting oneself into an immersion tube.

It was uncomfortable, especially for any Whispered that had forcibly spent time in a sensory deprivation tank to provoke a response of their abilities. However it was the best they had.

It was what she had to set up her little project.

She'd pulled one of the spare tubes out of supply and had been tinkering on it for

She was close to something, perhaps it was time for an extra perspective.

The Captain leaned back and reluctantly reached into the Whispers.

She had the mechanics mostly down, but there was a lot that she needed to be certain of. Software and genetics especially.

The world vanished around her as equations and numbers flowed past her mental avatar. Whispered words and phrases surrounded her in a confusing mass. However, she'd been in this state many times, and she knew how delve for the information she needed.

As usual, she had the feeling that she wasn't alone in the Whispers.

Tessa turned about as a sea-green form appeared next to her while she was sorting through the whispers. She was about to turn aside to warn Naiki to be quiet, but didn't have to for once.

_I'll stay quiet and watch your back,_ Naiki sent her simply. _Eija says theirs something nasty in here._

_Thanks,_ Tessa said, turning back to her work.

* * *

Yonjuu and Deimosu turned to look at Yaku as she started mumbling quietly.

"Yaku, are you okay?" Deimosu asked, coming up to her side.

He turned to look at Yonjuu.

"Is this normal?" he asked.

"I don't know many Go's, but I've never seen this happen," the girl said.

"Interlinking energy matrix," she muttered. "Reserve energy build up, telepathic energy exchange. Crystalline structures of most compatible nature to hominid evolutionary paths."

As she spoke, she mechanically turned the blueprints over and started drawing.

"What the hell is going on?" Yonjuu asked.

"I don't know," Deimosu said, walking to his small collection of scrolls, "but I'm going to find out."

* * *

Sofia would have smiled if her body wasn't frozen in a crystal, dead for all intents and purposes. Only the crystal and the TAROS connected to it maintaining her mind and soul past that physical death.

There was no way Tessa could find what she wanted to find. Not by herself. Sofia had disconnected all the pieces of the device that the captain wanted to build. Only Kaname could find it alone, and that was because she was the keystone of the network.

Which is what Sofia wanted to be.

Sofia spent all her time in the Whispers that came from Chidori, she knew it better than any other Whispered. She knew it so well that she had been faking herself as the keystone. Even facing Chidori as such.

Then she noticed another presence in the Whispers, coming close to where Testarossa was.

The young one. Sofia smiled, she liked Yaku Go, such childish innocence. And she was never looking for anything that Sofia needed to worry about. Last time it was merely programming schematics. Sofia liked to help her.

Out of curiosity, she took a moment to see what Yaku was looking for.

And this time it wasn't anything harmless. And it was coming at just the wrong time. When Tessa was looking for the other half of the puzzle.

At any moment, the two would meet in the middle and the secret to blocking the negative aspects of Resonance would be in the hands of at least two Whispered. From there it would only spread.

Sofia couldn't have that until she'd taken Chidori's body and become the keystone.

She had to stop one of them, at least. Yaku Go, young, trusting and alone. Or Tessa Testarossa, guarded and experienced.

The bodiless spirit looked toward Yaku and then turned to face Testarossa.

* * *

Naiki flinched as a flurry of whispers surrounded her, growing louder and pushing in on her.

_Tessa!_ Naiki snapped. _Whatever you're doing, do it fast._

Tessa turned around and saw the swirling numbers and equations coming in around Naiki like antibodies trying to seal off a virus.

The demoness concentrated on herself and let loose a raw burst of energy, disrupting the swirling forms momentarily, but they reformed quickly.

_You can't have this, Teletha Testarossa,_ a soft woman's voice said. _Nobody can have this until I'm ready._

Another mental avatar appeared in front of Tessa, a slim, expressionless figure whose mouth did not open as her thoughts came out.

It reached out a hand toward Tessa a cold expression like a smile in her eyes.

_I'm not new to this!_ Tessa responded calmly. A burst of mental energy formed out of her as she furrowed her brow and pushed Sofia away.

Naiki's sea green form, plastered with dark things from the Whispers rushed around to come between Tessa and Sofia.

_I got this_ Naiki snapped.

_What have you got, demon?_ Sofia asked, mouth still not moving. _You are an unwanted element in this system. The antivirus will keep coming and coming until you are neutralized._

_Yeah, it comes in violent, overwhelming and tumultuous flow,_ Naiki said wearily. _And I'm the demon of Torrent._

Suddenly, the antivirus of attacking equations ripped past Naiki flowing forward and around Sofia in a cloud like that attacking the demoness.

Sofia's eyes reflected a grimace as she, arms crossed, focused her mind on diverting the flow of diverted antivirus at least a little. Some still flowed onto her in places. They didn't stick long, eventually recognizing Sofia as part of the system. However, as long as Naiki was still standing, Sofia was prevented from attacking Tessa.

But Tessa wouldn't finish before the anti-virals that were attacking Naiki took the demoness out of the fight.

Then Sofia noted one of the equations peel of Naiki and her eyes widened fractionally.

The demoness was part of the system somehow, but that was impossible.

It would also make the fight longer than it should be. She glanced back, further in the Whispers, to see how close Yaku was to reaching Tessa's position. She could still take the girl...if she had to.

Give the impression she was retreating and the demoness would back off, leaving her clear to destroy Yaku. Unfortunate though that was.

The first thing she saw however, wasn't Yaku but two other figures. Neither of them was an element, meaning they had come in the same way the demoness probably did at first, through a telepathic connection with a Whispered.

_Naiki?_ the male figure, formed out of lightning from all appearances, declared.

_Deimosu!_ the demoness responded, distracting her just long enough for Sofia to make another action.

The flow of antivirus erupted again, moving to attack the new figures. The demoness reacted, shifting from attacking Sofia to protecting herself and the others. Equations and numbers swirled around, not advancing or retreating.

_What's going on?_ Deimosu asked, staying back from the cloud of equations.

_Tessa's looking for something,_ Naiki said. _This bitch doesn't want us to find whatever it is. A way to keep people from Resonating into each other._

The new female figure sat up at that.

_Isn't that what you said let Kodachi eat us?/I Yonjuu asked, she firmed up her face and didn't wait for an answer._

_Diving forward through the cloud she winced as the antivirals latched onto her before she reached out and smashed her face into Sofia's expressionless image._

_[I]Don't touch her!_ Naiki shouted. _That's how it starts._

Deimosu had already been moving and he barely reached Yonjuu in time to pull her away from the dark, gleeful look on the Sofia's face.

And then the demigod's lightning form lashed outward with a mental projection. It arched around Sofia, the smile in her eyes and arched toward Tessa, where the other two Whispereds were coming close to reaching each other.

And stopped by running into a wall of red blood that washed out over the area, pulling down to reveal a black figure with blood red eyes.

_Naiki, Deimosu,_ Eija said. _The spirits of the dead are my concern._

_I am not dead,_ Sofia said, again her mouth not moving.

She flinched visibly then as Kaname's image appeared beside Tessa.

Eija reached out, ignoring the antivirals swarming toward her, Naiki already stretched at holding them off as it was. Then the bodiless Whispered felt the surge of power and invasion flow into her at Eija's will. All the whispers, all the equations and numbers. Everything she had known for all her existence was washed out in sea of red.

_You're dead enough,_ Eija noted. _And you will not hurt my friends._

Her mind clouded, Sofia lost direct control of the antivirals, and suddenly the demoness had full control of the torrent.

With a shriek of denial, Sofia fled and watched as Kaname moved to help Tessa and bridged the gap between Yaku Go and Tessa.

And then the secrets they needed came into piece.

* * *

Naiki came out of her trance and tumbled out of her seated position to the floor, panting and breathing heavily. She smelled her own blood covering her and coughed weakly.

"Naiki!" Eija gasped in her ear as the goddess came to her side. "Why did you take on a spirit without me? If I hadn't found you, I wouldn't have been able to help you."

"I thought I could handle it," Naiki muttered as she felt Eija's power reaching out to heal her.

_Naiki, are you okay?_ Tessa's voice asked the demoness, for once echoing loudly through Naiki's pained mind.

"Am I fine?" Naiki asked Eija.

"No!" Eija snapped. "You're bleeding out of your eyes! But I think I can fix it."

_Eija says I'm fine,_ Naiki sent Tessa.

_Why are you such a terrible liar?_ Tessa demanded.

_I'll be fine?_ Naiki asked.

_Better_

Kaname came running into the scene, Sousuke close behind her.

"What's going on?" she called. "I just barely caught the end of that. Is Naiki okay?"

"What is going on?" Sousuke asked. "Kaname said something about ghosts."

"Naiki was being reckless," Eija snapped. "They were in those...Whispers and whatever that ghost in there is attacked them. I hope it was worth it."

* * *

Yonjuu and Deimosu awoke from the mindscape and groaned as the pain came suddenly into awareness.

The sensor reached up to feel the trace of blood leaking from her nostrils and then lay back down groaning. Her head felt splitting and every muscle seemed sore and drained.

"I hate using magic," Deimosu groaned beside her. "At least I know what it looks like when my soul is attacked by antivirals now."

"Big Brother! Big Sister," Yaku gasped coming to their side and thumping them painfully in good cheer. "I know what to do to help Big Brother Deimosu!"

Apparently she was momentarily oblivious to the looks of pain on her elders' faces.

* * *

Naiki lay back in bed, a warm damp cloth on her forehead as Ranma looked over her carefully.

"Looks like the same thing that used to happen when we cast spells," Ranma said. "The bleeding is new and worrying."

"I stopped the bleeding, Okaasan," Eija said.

Kyoko came back into the room, prompting Ranma to stop further diagnosis for the moment. The girl in the glasses sat at Naiki's side and replaced the cloth on Naiki's head.

"How'd you get so sick so fast?" Kyoko asked in a worried tone.

Outside, Ranma could hear Mizuki chatting with Kaname and Sousuke.

"This is like the worst vacation ever," she snapped. "Except for when we got hijacked by terrorists."

Kyoko started to pull a peach out of her bag and a small knife in the other hand.

"You'll be fine in little bit," Ranma told Naiki before turning toward Kyoko, who was now putting the peach and knife back in her bag.

"Can you give us..." Ranma started to say.

"Oh yes," Kyoko said. "Give me a moment and you can talk about being psychics and demigods."

Ranma, Eija and Naiki sat up straight and stared at Kyoko as she stood up and smiled at them before walking out of the room.

"She's...an interesting person," Eija said. "When did she figure out?"

"I'd like to know that as well, but I don't think it's something we'll figure out," Ranma said. "You said you saw Deimosu?"

"He was there," Naiki said, sitting up and groaning. "There was also a little girl and a girl with a big chest."

"I only caught the last part of the fight," Eija said.

"You were the last part of the fight," Naiki corrected.

"Yes, well," Eija said. "Anyway, I saw him too. He was a living spirit, all of them were."

Ranma took a deep, relieved breath.

"Anything saying where they were?" Ranma asked.

"Sorry, no," Eija said. "I was more concerned with the ghost. She was strong and she escaped. I had the sense that the attacks she was using were meant for me after our last encounter. She'll have something new next time."

"Combat doesn't leave much room for interrogation," Ranma agreed.

_I resonated with the girl briefly,_ Tessa told Naiki, who winced at the headache. _I don't think they were on Earth._

"Tessa says she doesn't think they were on Earth," Naiki said.

Ranma perked up at that and frowned.

"When he attacked Kodachi's facility, he came through some sort of flashing lights," Ranma said. "He'll have to open it again...and that I can watch for."

Ranma smiled at that. It was a smile of relief and eagerness.

* * *

Yonjuu and Deimosu were both feeling a little bit better. The demigod was actually running through katas and keeping a calm face, though the sensor could smell the chemicals of a pain reaction despite the stoic attitude.

She would have stayed there watching Deimosu practicing and Yaku drawing, but then the little girl started walking straight into the labyrinth.

"What are you doing?" Yonjuu asked, standing up, a little too swiftly.

Deimosu stopped his katas and moved over as well, putting a hand on Yaku's shoulder.

"You can get lost in there," he warned.

"I want to see the crystal cave," Yaku said. "Then I can make this."

She showed them a drawing that looked like a bunch of childish blocks and circles.

"And that is?" Deimosu asked.

"It'll make Big Brother stronger!" Yaku said. "For a little bit...that other lady is making something better. But I can still help!"

"How much stronger?" Deimosu asked.

Yaku thought for a moment.

"A lot stronger!" she said finally.

"And how little bit will it last?" Yonjuu asked.

Yaku thought for a little longer.

"Just a little bit," she said.

"Is that more or less than a day?" the demigod asked.

"Ummm, yes," Yaku said.

"Our technical expert is a little girl," Yonjuu sighed. "Let's go, child, I'll take you to the crystal cave."

* * *

"Might I ask what this is?" Commander Mardukas asked as he came into the workshop to see Tessa tinkering with the computers attached to a TAROS immersion tube.

"This is a first step," Tessa said. "It won't bring us up to the Gods and Demons alone, but it'll get rid of a problem we've been having. The next part can be added later, when we find something suitable for a power source."

"We're expecting battle with them, then?" Mardukas asked.

"I hope not," Tessa said. "But always better to be prepared. What did you need, Commander?"

"There's been a report of a mysterious fire in the Russian wilds," Mardukas said. "We commandeered a satellite for a pass and found this."

He handed over the pictures to Tessa who looked at them and frowned as she saw the unmistakable silhouette of a lambda drive equipped AS, though it was in pieces.

"Those are Venoms," Tessa said. "They've moved out of prototypes."

"From a report who have from Sergeant Sagara," Mardukas said. "They're using a drug to put their pilots in the right frame of mind to use the lambda driver."

"That corresponds with what we learned from Taku...the autopsy of the behemoth pilot," Tessa said with a moment of quiet regret. "They don't care if their pilots are little unstable. As long as they're stable enough to carry out orders."

"And how do we keep up?" Mardukas asked. "We've already decided the drugs are counterproductive in the long term, and we can't train people quickly to use a lambda driver. So we can build Arms-Slaves, but we can't put people in them."

"I'd say Sousuke is turning out well so far," Tessa said. "I'll have to talk to Lord Malloy, if we're going to keep up without using the same chemicals, we need to change the training program to produce lambda pilots. That might mean unclassifying Psyche."

She looked over the pictures a little bit more, frowning.

"Maybe we'll have a bit of an edge of our own," Tessa said, looking back to her project. "In the meantime, Commander, I have some information for you and Lt Commander Kalinin."

She pointed toward a file on the table across from her.

"Hecate DisPater," he read the tab.

He opened up the dossier and started flipping through it, eyes widening.

* * *

Mara was in the process of shifting through the information Persephone had provided Naiki while she listened. Naiki had later typed it up, apparently with Captain Testarossa's advice on how to put it together.

It was a long file, which befit the age and activity of the goddess in question.

Demons sealed, major conflicts involved in, contacts among the Gods, enemies among the Demons. Domain, skills, preferred spells, innate abilities, spells that she powered. Personality profile.

She was cut off from Yggdrasil now, by her own decision, that meant she couldn't be more than a skilled category two in power. It also meant she couldn't use any spells to borrow power from any other God.

However, the list of artifacts she'd gotten away with were more than a little worrisome.

Mara glanced over some of the demon names.

"Vritra," she said. "Almost killed by Hecate in one of the last major battles before the truce was called."

She frowned and went to the list of sealed demons, noting a pattern.

Hecate had sealed an abnormal of demons before the truce was formalized, especially for a Goddess who so hated demons. What was disturbing was that she had "almost killed" family members of several of those sealed demons.

Persephone's records said these hostages had been returned after the truce was called. However, several of the names were demons she knew hadn't been seen in thousand of years.

With that in mind, Hecate started putting together a list of names. Most of them not the sort of old scorched earth demons they were looking for as problems, but demons with hostages.

As she was listing the names, something bugged her about that first one, Vritra, but she couldn't quite peg down what bothered her.

* * *

Hecate unrolled the scroll in her hand, delivered by one of her personal minions. A hell hound in this case. Apparently there were things of interest going on in the human world. She wasn't convinced, but supposed that the Gods and Demons could be trying to track her down.

Probably a good idea to at least check.

* * *

"We're going to visit the Satomis and their friends before they leave," Akane said pointedly to Nodoka as she and her family stood at the door. "Are you coming?"

Nodoka sat and sipped her tea calmly. It was the fourth day since her last discussion with Ranma or someone connected to him, and as of yet, nothing had happened to her despite that woman's threat. Of course it would be empty, just some sort of superstitious nonsense, like the fruit.

None of these barbarians knew much of Japanese or even Chinese ways. Though at least it was a peach and not an apple like most Europeans used to pass off as sacred fruit.

"All right then," Ryuu said. "Let's go, they'll be waiting for us."

"You'd better win, Ryuu," Akane said with a smirk.

"Oh, not rooting for Ranma?" Ryuu asked.

"I'd like to see her do well," Akane said. "But I'd still rather if you won."

Nodoka didn't react at all to the discussion.

"Daddy can beat everyone!" Izumi cheered.

"Except Mom," Masaru noted.

"Except Mommy!" Izumi echoed with a cheer.

Ryuu rolled his eyes and sighed as Akane smirked.

"She cheats," Ryuu protested.

* * *

Tessa took a deep breath as the software compiled again and then ran a simulation. The simulation didn't seem to be able to reach a confirmed result, good or bad. A test run on sample DNA didn't show anything. Animal tests were no good, the machine required the base DNA of a human being.

Basically, every check she could run as to whether or not it work came across as inconclusive. She knew, somehow knew, it worked, but she had no proof. Of course, logically and scientifcally speaking, that was belief rather than knowledge, but she wasn't going to split that hair.

It came down to the fact that she either needed to mothball the project, something she was very unlikely to do given how much effort was put into keeping her away from it, or she needed to take a leap of faith.

There was no way that she could ask someone else to go through this first.

* * *

Yaku fortunately didn't need much in the way of resources to do what she wanted. And she attacked this product with the same sort of gusto that she had spent on video games to that point. She was cutting the crystals in the cave carefully into specific shapes, altering the flow of water to encourage more crystal growth in places, slowing it others. She cut lines into the surfaces of the crystals.

Every time Deimosu or Yonjuu came to gather more mushrooms, the crystals were looking more and more like some sort of computer circuit or series of mystical circles, or a combination of the two. The crystals were actually starting to grow out of the cave in places.

The two older kids were ending up spending most of their time in the cave as well to make sure Yaku didn't get into any trouble or lost in the Labyrinth. Most of that was spent with Deimosu giving Yonjuu some lessons in how to take care of herself.

And finally.

"It's done!" Yaku declared. "Well, it's done for now."

"So what do we do now?" Yonjuu and Deimosu asked at once.

Yaku blinked at the two of them, that was getting more common. Something told her that was a bad thing, but she wasn't sure what yet.

"You have to connect with it," Yaku said. "With your mind, like when you did the thing where I could speak Greek for a while?"

"That'll take magic," Deimosu said. "Which is going to hurt."

"The other girl in the Whispers," Yuka said. "She has the other part."

"The other part?" Deimosu asked.

"Mmhmm," Yaku said. "I think I'll go make a new game now."

"Okay," Yonjuu said as she watched Yaku walk out of the cave with a skipping step. "What now?"

"Now I wait for twilight," Deimosu said simply.

* * *

"So, is this going to be like the fight you had in front of the school?" Kaname asked Naiki, who seemed to be a little distracted.

"Actually," Eija said. "This is going to be more like the fight against the Behemoth if I read their respective chi correctly."

Kaname stared at her.

"If Saotome-san is of level with Satomi-sensai," Sousuke said. "Then this will be a most impressive display of power and skill."

"I'm looking forward to this too," Kurz said, stretching back. "Most of the time when you see this sort of the action, it's either a fake movie or your too stuck in the middle of it to enjoy it."

Eija looked around.

"Where are Shinji, Kyoko and Mizuki, by the way?" she asked.

"Kyoko wanted to go to a movie and they went with her," Kaname said with a smirk, then she turned a bit serious. "We're going to need to tell them about this eventually."

Eija nodded.

"Think about it later," Akane said as she arrived and sat down at the side lines to watch the coming fight.

Her children sat down beside her and yawned.

Down below, Ryuu Saotome was stepping onto the field where Ranma Satomi was sitting and waiting in meditation.

"Well, Ranma," Ryuu said, with a smirk. "Meditation?"

"It's relaxing," Ranma noted as she stretched and stood up.

For once, Ranma wasn't wearing her normal red business dress. Instead, she was wearing black tactical clothes. Sousuke and Kurz noted that they were carefully free of any insignia, though they matched the design of Mithril tactical uniforms.

Both turned to face each other.

"This is about the senken?" Ranma asked.

"I'd like to see your versions," Ryuu said. "But let's just cut loose." He looked toward the spectators. "Safely."

"Of course."

Ranma smiled.

There was a subtle shift in how the two presented themselves almost immediately. Nothing visibly physical, but the entire attitude shifted. A shift that everybody watching seemed to feel.

"Now it's going to get started," Kurz said with a smirk as he felt the change.

Kaname shivered at the feeling. This wasn't the first time she'd felt that change in feeling, though there was a subtle difference this time from the other times she'd felt things suddenly turn serious.

_They're serious about testing each other,_ Eija explained to her. _They're not looking to hurt each other though._

Kaname nodded, recognizing the distinction.

Then the first moves started.

Ranma snapped out with with a light jab which Ryuu blocked easily, but was immediately followed by a snap kick from the red-head to the shin which her opponent pulled his foot over.

Ryuu turned the avoidance into a shin kick himself which Ranma intercepted, turning aside the kick and dodging aside the Geimon Tessen Shi that came behind the kick.

Following the motion Ranma twisted on her foot into a position behind Ryuu, who pivoted and dropped into a sweep before Ranma could perform a Haku Dato Shin Sho, attacking the pressure points on her opponent's back.

She avoided the sweep by shifting into a back flip.

"You've gotten more aggressive," Ryuu commented as another exchange began.

"My opponents the past seventeen years have been out for blood," Ranma responded.

The testing exchanges continued as neither was able to get a solid hit on the other and the techniques escalated into an aerial display that was taking place ten feet or more off the ground most of the time.

Ranma lashed out with a twisting aerial roundhouse, which Ryuu intercepted. He intended to take her momentum and use it to push himself up higher as she toppled to the ground.

However,to his surprise the redhead merely smirked as she pivoted on his interception and thrust him uncontrollably upwards as she rolled down easily to the ground.

Ryuu gained control of his upward motion quickly enough, though he was limited by a lack of things to push off of. He'd never considered creating a counter to stealing the wind, which itself was supposed to be the ultimate aerial counter. And now he was going to be coming right down into Ranma's shooting gallery.

Best to start one of his own.

Twisting about, he swung open his arms unleashing a Kijin Raishu Dan downwards at Ranma. The red-head responded with her own vacuum blade, which held place in front of her instead of flying out.

Ryuu's blade struck Ranma's and was disrupted as Ranma's faded from view.

But it gave Ryuu a chance to land safely and then to experiment with a theory. A blast of pure chi erupted out of the martial artist, tearing at the dirt as it burst out toward Ranma who ripped her hands apart, forming an X-shaped shield of vacuum blades that diverted the chi around her.

"Defensive Yamasenken," he said approvingly. "Let me try something of my own."

He faded from view briefly, flashing back into sight just a moment later. Ryuu continued blinking in and out of sight as Ranma smirked at the rising challenge. The interspersed bursts of invisibility hid the body tells, making it hard to predict.

"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Ranma shouted, spreading the attack wide.

Ryuu stopped blinking as he seemed to twist aside, the multitude of Ranma's attacks seeming to pass through the martial artist's body. With widened eyes, Ranma leaped up into the air, spinning as the first Ryuu faded away and a second appeared some feet to the side, striking out and just missing.

Ranma landed immediately dodged aside again as a small burst of twisting air lashed out past her, coming off of Ryuu's arm as it twisted sharply.

Cartwheeling, heels over head, Ranma sent her own pair of mid-size tornadoes lashing outward toward Ryuu in a twisting path as she dodged aside of the small whirlwinds being sent outward by her opponent.

Ryuu flipped over the two tornadoes and came to a solid landing as Ranma returned to her feet and both turned to face each other again.

"Time for aces," Ranma said.

"Sounds about right," Ryuu agreed.

"Kijin Raishu Kami-Ken!" "Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken Kansei!"

Ryuu shifted about at inhuman speeds that were visibly surpassed by Ranma's full body chest-net, but still let him compete. Every Ryuu moved, a shiver of darkness followed as her maintained a speed that produced a minimal vacuum along every edge of his body.

The action became nearly impossible for the spectators to follow as the two warriors blurred, the distinctive ripping sound of vacuum striking through the air with a machine gun like speed.

Kaname blinked and the fight was happening fifty feet away from where it had just been. Another blink and they moved even further away. They broke off and dark crescent blades ripped through the air between them before they clashed again.

Ranma fell out of the full body chestnut fist as she tired from its constant use, slowing down further and further until she was caught in the back of the legs by a vacuum edged leg, sending her to the ground with the sting of a blunted vacuum edge in her shins.

"Stamina," Ryuu told Ranma, with a smirk as he reached a hand out for Ranma to take.

"There'll be a rematch," Ranma said as she stood up with Ryuu's help.

"This," Kurz said to Sousuke. "This is what's been training you!"

"Yes," Sousuke said coolly.

"Can you do any of that?" Kurz asked.

"I'm working on the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken," Sousuke admitted.

"The Flash-imitation thing?" Kurz asked.

"Hand speed only," came the correction.

Akane stood up and walked down to the devastated fighting area and patted Ryuu on the back.

"Good job, dear," Akane said with a broad smile. "I knew you could win."

"Like I said, Akane," Ranma returned. "There'll be a rematch."

"Naiki, are feeling better yet?" Eija asked as they moved toward the two fighters. "You barely watched the fight."

"Tessa's doing something we..." Naiki stopped, eyes widening.

* * *

Mara was about to go see Naiki, presuming that her mother's fight was over all ready. The demoness had little interest in watching two similarly powerful humans pound away at each other.

She stopped as she looked down at the notes Naiki had typed up for her.

"Vritra," she said. "He's one of the guards on the Doublet System."

Hecate stared at the video she'd been directed to. She ran it back and started it over again.

Demons called them Juggernauts, Gods called them Titans and apparently humans called them Behemoths.

Hecate gritted her teeth angrily. How had this happened. How did the humans develop such devices so early? This was impossible.

Now it was even more important to proceed. This rise of these upstart humans needed to be put down quickly. Otherwise, the Gods would find them shoved aside as the Demons had been.

Two months, she told herself, and that demon would be finished doctoring the back-ups to the Doublet and she could send Deimosu into the realm that guarded the Doublet System.

Two months and millenia of going in the wrong direction would be corrected.

She took the moment to bring up one of the artifacts she'd carried with her, a mirror about the size of the palm of her hand.

"Show me where Deimosu has hidden," she said.

The mirror remained blank.

"Show me where Deimosu has hidden," Hecate repeated.

The mirror still did not change.

"Show me where..." Hecate stopped.

The only reason she wouldn't be able to find him was if he were outside the world.

"He found a hidden place," Hecate muttered, suddenly very concerned.

The Goddess of Vengeance paced for a moment uncertainly, glad there were no other Gods or Demons to see her so distressed. She could deal with this, she could still deal with all of this.

"What else can go wrong with this?" she wondered.

* * *

Commander Mardukas walked into the lobby of Captain Testarossa's office to find Lt. Commander Kalinin already there.

"Lieutenant Commander," Mardukas said. "Did the Captain call you in here as well?"

"Yes," Andrei said, curiously. "But I'm told she's not here yet."

"That's odd," Mardukas said.

They turned toward the sound of an opening door and turned to see Tessa walking past them.

"Excuse me, Commander," Tessa said cheerfully as she walked into her office. "Lt Commander, I'm glad you're here. I was just finishing something that you should be apprised of."

She stood at the wall, facing out the window and her back to her subordinates.

They followed her in, a bit confused at the way she was acting. Her normal tone of voice was still there, the professional tone that seemed so innocent that only her immediate soldiers knew about the iron that was in her soul.

"What would that be, Captain?" Andrei asked.

Slowly, the Captain turned around, a victorious smile on her face.

Both officer's eyes widened as her face came fully into view.

In the center of her forehead was a green chevron and at the corner of each eye were a pair of green half circles.

"Gentlemen," she said. "Humanity has officially arrived on the block."


	26. Last of the First

Mara vanished from her temporary lair and appeared beside Naiki, noting that Eija was standing there with Kaname and Sousuke as well. She didn't hesitate.

"Geisthexe-san," Naiki said with a smile, turning to look at her mentor and hesitating at the very serious expression she held.

"You need to get to Persephone, fast," Mara said. "If Eija can travel through her personal medium all ready..."

"My medium is blood though," Eija noted reluctantly.

"You travel through..." Kaname stopped as she saw what Mara was doing.

Mara nodded at that and sliced a finger nail across her arm, letting a small stream of blood pool at their feet before she started to wrap the wound to close it.

"What are you doing?" Eija asked, shocked. "Let me..."

"No time, there'll be blood somewhere at the Temple of Fates, trust me," Mara said. "Get to Persephone, tell her Hecate has a demon in Doublet System Guard. I'm heading to Nifelheim to tell Hild. Tell her it's Vritra, Hecate has a bunch of his family sealed somewhere."

With that she vanished into a puff of smoke.

"What can she do to the Doublet System?" Sousuke asked.

"I don't know," Eija said. "I don't know much about how it works."

"Can't be anything good," Naiki muttered. "You go talk to Persephone, I'll tell Mom what's up."

"Is it possible for us to go with you?" Sousuke asked.

"Well, I practiced taking Urd along," Eija noted. "But I don't think..."

"You're not going anywhere alone just yet," Kaname said seriously.

Eija's performance in the Whispers hadn't let Kaname forget that she was still a little shaky with some things. Sousuke backed her up with a silent nod and shook his head.

"Well...let's try," Eija sighed, reaching out her hands to take one each of Sousuke's and Kaname's.

The goddess stepped into the small pool of blood, barely the size of a hand mirror, and started to sink down into it, pulling Sousuke and Kaname with her.

"Okay, this is the weirdest thing yet," Kaname declared as they quickly sank out of sight.

Behind them, the sun hit the horizon and in a short time twilight began. A time that was neither day or night.

* * *

Far away, Deimosu watched out the gate to see the sun setting and nodded purposefully before stepping back through the open passage into the labyrinth, shutting the gate down behind him.

He had no way of knowing, of course, that his mother had set people to watch for gates within the last few days. So far, only one of the psychics or exorcists assigned had reached one of the sights Ranma suspected Deimosu had opened the gate at.

The remnants of Kodachi's facility that he had raided, demoed to avoid the crazed woman from doing it at some inappropriate time. Elements of the Labyrinth gate's signature sat there still, not completely faded yet over the last few weeks.

It was enough for the exorcist to recognize the signature repeating itself and, given how long it remained open, track it to its source.

Hecate had calmed herself down as she arranged for messages to reach her pawns and minions. It wasn't as bad as she had thought.

Deimosu still needed her to tell him how to properly sabotage the Doublet System or get in undetected. He didn't have the strength to wage an assault or even to outright destroy the System. So things were still under her control.

Yes, everything could still go according to plan.

"Well?" Yonjuu asked as Deimosu came back.

The young man didn't waste any time, taking one of his scrolls and looking it over to re-familiarize himself with what he was about to do. Eventually, he'd have to memorize this thing given how much he was using it, but until then, this would do.

"It's twilight in Japan," Deimosu said. "I just hope that makes this work."

Yonjuu winced in sympathy at the pain that moved through Deimosu as he started casting the mind link spell again and linking to the crystal grotto, which was still growing, as if it was now feeding itself.

Yaku also watched, curious as to how her creation would work.

Deimosu leaned against a wall for the last part of spell, setting the scroll down carefully, and then he finished. And suddenly, the pain seemed to lessen considerably. It wasn't gone, but it was more like something in the background compared to the sudden wash of energy and power he felt flooding into him.

It reminded him of the circle and how much he'd over done the lightning storm. He had to be careful not to do too much again.

"I think it worked," he said, stretching out his limbs in order to get used to the power within him for the moment. "We're outside the seasons and outside the world. Let's open the gate."

* * *

The fortress around the Doublet System was surrounded by a wide open field with practically no cover. Surrounding it was a vast sea that seemed to stretch forever and above a smoky sky that hid any celestial bodies which might have existed.

Sulfur, salt water and the smell of wheat filled the small pocket world. It could have been unpleasant, and it was certainly thick and surprising, but the shock seemed to fade quickly once you were introduced to it, and it muddled into a sort of incense.

The fortress itself sat atop the only hill, perhaps a mountain, of the realm. A long road, passing through many lesser fortresses strung down toward a large stone pier ending in a large circular pier something like a landing zone.

Every building was staffed with Demons and Gods. Mostly category twos with a great degree of skill and reliability, but with a handful of category ones and some powerful category twos that had turned down promotion.

The Demons were more visibly well armed and obviously the combat arm of the security, but the Gods were all trained as well. And every one knew a hefty supply of sealing spells.

Sealing spells which were targeted at Gods and Demons, or those with the blood of both.

A long time ago, there were only the assigned guards here, but now, after so long, it had become a military town, with a number of small families. Perhaps the largest community of Demon and God interrelations throughout the known multiverse. Many of the residents were unwilling to leave the Doublet Fortress for either Asgard or Nifelheim, where they'd be separated from family or friends.

Only a few Demons and Gods kept themselves separate from the general community, mostly new assignees. But there were a few that had been there for a long time that still kept separate.

Vritra was one of these eccentrics, spending time alone maintaining the systems and checking the back-ups. More precisely, he was altering the backups. Instead of copying the existing randomly assigned doublets, he was applying lists and programs Hecate had provided him with.

And now, it was only a very short time before he would be finished. Among other things, Hecate would be tied to no one, but several would be tied to her. She'd be in a position to stand on top of everything.

And he was helping that happen.

He sighed and looked out a nearby window toward the landing zone, keeping in mind the distraction that he was supposed to set off once the signal came.

Hecate never sent him messages directly. Her messages came through the news that was occasionally brought to the fortress, things that the others did not realize were personal to him.

More than a thousand years ago, he'd attempted to sabotage the plan. Then came the next round of news.

A report of a crime where a Demon was sealed into a torturous seal and came out all but broken. The God who seemed responsible was punished with Tartarus and the Demon was reincarnated and the memory of the torture sealed.

The Demon in question was related to Vritra and the punished God was someone he'd considered contacting about the problem.

He took the hint.

Even with Hecate now in hiding, he was still receiving messages. He looked out a window down toward the arrival circle and reviewed the distraction he was supposed to use so that Hecate's half-human pawn could get in unnoticed.

Which is how he saw the gate appearing at the circle.

* * *

Deimosu came out of the gate at a run, aware that he would probably be arriving at some common entry point complete with guards. Sure enough, as the gate closed behind him, he saw ahead two Demons drawing weapons in surprise at his sudden appearance. Behind them a God was in the process of casting some sort of spell.

He could feel their power, and knew that none of the immediate three was quite as strong as his mother. And nowhere near what he was running with right now.

"Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken Kansei!" Deimosu shouted.

He almost lost himself in the sudden rush of speed and the immense drain of power that came with it. Given it was his first time, he was nowhere near as efficient as his mother, who could manage a couple of minutes under this state with a fraction of the power.

He was past the Demons in a flash, disabling the God before whatever spell was being cast could be completed and then flipping back to take out the two demons that were just finishing drawing weapons.

He let the full-body chestnut go, relieved that it hadn't broken his connection with the crystals as the power started refilling at once. And then he was rushing up the road.

Hecate had wanted to use him because white magic, and thus the sentinels in the Doublet Fortress, couldn't detect him. Perhaps it was a bit of overconfidence, but he wasn't feeling like he needed stealth just now.

A blast of lightning struck down out of the sky striking the ground ahead of him as he charged forward. He smirked in response and twisted before sending a horizontal blast of chi up ahead of him, scattering the Demons that were coming down the road to stop him.

Several more bursts of lightning erupted above him, and this time he simply reached out and deflected the lightning around him. Then the first Demons reached him in melee, scattered among them several Gods.

They were very good, highly skilled, probably about on level with what he could do under normal circumstances. He wasn't about to use the full-body chestnut again, his little experiment showed him that he wasn't even close to an appropriate level of efficiency with it, however, even without it, he was currently running faster and stronger than he had ever been before.

Still, they might slow him down and he didn't want to kill anybody here, so lethal action wasn't an option. He jumped off the road out into the field, drawing the host of guards with him.

Someone cast a spell that had the wheat about his feet growing rapidly, reaching out to try and catch his limbs. He caught it quickly, and moved swiftly, avoiding any one spot for long as the wheat stalks continued to try and grab him. Obviously they didn't want to give him a solid place to stand.

Which was fine with him as he let them chase him around in a closing circle. A spiral his mother and siblings would recognize.

"We've got him hemmed in," someone shouted as they pushed him toward the center.

"Hiryu Shoten Ha!" Deimosu shouted as he spun into a seemingly pointless upper cut.

The tornado that erupted around him was fueled with the pishogue and mana of every guard within the spiral and many times stronger than any such spiral could produce with only two participants.

Deimosu leaped up from the ground into the blast of air, letting himself be carried along like the shocked Demons and Gods scattering around him. And then he thrust a burst of chi toward the ground, letting the momentum of wind and chi propel him forward up toward the fortress on the hill.

Those Gods and Demons that remained standing watched in amazement as the inexplicably powerful mortal flew away from them and slammed into the wall of the cliff side in the distance and started running up the side to land sharply on the wall.

Bursts of smoke erupted around him as Demons teleported to his position. He dodged aside swords and fire, blocks from the wall flew up from underneath him and struggled to avoid contact while fighting back, without trying to kill any of them.

He did a double take as he saw the first sign of young Demons and Gods running down the streets of the fortress town, getting away from the fighting.

"She never said anything about kids," he muttered as he leaped down from the wall into the streets.

It would be easier down here to cut loose without sending someone over a hundreds foot fall.

* * *

"What's going on?" a God demanded as he appeared at a window and saw the fight going on in the town below.

"We're under attack," the Demon next to him said. "By a mortal with category one or higher strength."

"A mortal?" the God responded. "How is that possible? It was only recently that they identified a category two mortal. And what is he here for?"

"Let's ask him when we stop him," the Demon said, bursting into a smoke cloud.

* * *

Deimosu dodged away from the guards pursuing him as he cast about with his senses, the Doublet System would have to have some sort of power, and it should ring out easily from the area.

A blast of ice washed over him, trying to freeze him in place, and he simply burst through by main strength. This was getting intoxicating, but he could feel his chi refreshing itself slower as the mind link he'd forced into the crystal was breaking down.

At the moment, he was the only person that the crystal was powering, giving him an immense reserve of energy. But that was falling apart, at which point, he was going to be swarmed and captured or worse.

Best to end this quickly.

He interrupted his thoughts as he saw some stray burst cut off a piece of the stone structures around them and rain rubble down onto the streets which still had scattered non-combatants and kids.

For about twenty seconds, the fighting stopped as Deimosu and every guard in the area directed their efforts against the rubble. Once the danger to the children was cleared, they shared a cautionary nod with Deimosu and the battle started again.

He leaped up away from the town portion of the fortress and landed upon the edges of the central keep, and then he felt it beneath him, mana and pishogue both radiating upward out of the ground.

As the guards came after him again, teleporting or otherwise, he turned his efforts down to the ground.

"Baksei Tenketsu!"

He dropped into the next floor and repeated the process, turning aside once as the rock underneath him seemed to turn into steel spontaneously.

The demigod didn't pause to find a new path, but simply brute-forced a chi blast downward, tearing through the floor and dropping into a room where trees and vines interwoven with snakes grew with seeming random, indecipherable abandon.

Deimosu paused for a moment as he took it in and realized that, like the crystal, this was the System he was looking for.

He looked up to see the guards following him downward. He took a stance and started spinning around swiftly.

"Kijin-Gun Dai Ranbu!" he shouted as the first black blades of vacuum ripped out from his position.

* * *

The Doublet System died and it ceased to contact with Yggdrasil or Nidhog. That continued contact had been keeping the multi-part virus in each system from triggering the first phase of their operation.

Suddenly, those two viruses erupted into activity, spreading throughout either system.

The locks on Tartarus and the Abyss went first, as the will of the current regime in both Nifelheim and Asgard found themselves unable to seal the powers of their prisoners any longer.

Next, the links in Yggdrasil and Nidhog each collapsed, leaving every God and Demon with only their own personal resources for a long period of time as the Goddesses and Demons that maintained each system worked to fix the problem.

Then the viruses flooded into the impure elements and signals were sent to certain people to make a move.

If Hecate's plan had been followed, the Doublet would have been disabled and then the corrupted information replaced with Vritra's doctored backup information. Hecate had not considered that the entire garden would have been annihilated, that every snake and plant was torn asunder.

That the computer which had taken the Gods and Demons a century to build would have been simply gone.

The virus was never going to get the second part of its command.

It wasn't going to be able to kill the impure.

It wasn't going to be able to lock out the Gods and Demons from rebooting either Nidhog or Yggdrasil.

The coming fight was going to be much more fair than Hecate or her ilk had planned.

* * *

"Attacking the Doublet System?" Ranma said.

"What's the Doublet System?" Akane asked.

"It's what kept me from killing Poseidon," Naiki said. "If a God dies, then so does a Demon, and no one knows who is linked."

"I can see why you'd want to destroy this," Ryuu noted. "It'd let you kill...certain people and nobody else. But why would a God or Demon want to destroy it."

"So they can take over without fear of accidentally killing themselves," Akane said.

"That's what Deimosu is doing," Ranma said. "We're close to finding him with what Tessa found, I might be able to find him and stop him before..."

Naiki winced and stumbled suddenly before collapsing immediately.

"Naiki!" Kyoko shouted as she arrived then with Shinji and Mizuki behind her.

"Captain, this was a very reckless decision!" Commander Mardukas said. "At the very least, you should have had someone monitoring you."

"I understand that, Commander," Tessa said. "But it had to be done, and it had to be me. No one else first. And I knew it would work."

"And where do we go from here?" Kalinin asked. "We now know that we can secure a Whispered from Resonance, but can it also convert others the way the Gods and Demons can."

"Yes," Tessa said. "It's programmed to base on Human DNA, it'll put in anything missing and base it on the individual's compatibility."

"You told me this was just a first step," Mardukas said. "What made you take that step without having the second done."

"Someone else started the second step," Tessa said. "I get the feeling we're going to find them soon. And I think..."

She stopped and considered something.

"Is their something wrong?" Mardukas asked.

"Something's wrong with Naiki," Tessa said sharply. "Hecate's made her move."

* * *

"The Doublet System," Hild said. "That's madness."

"Think about it," Mara said. "She wants to take over, go back to the old ways. The entire movement does. The first thing they'd have to do."

"Is get rid of us who support the new ways," Hild frowned. "If either Asgard or we stay strong, we have the power to put down the old ones like we did before and return to status quo."

"That's right," Mara said. "They have to kill all of us, or they lose."

"I'll send a warning immediately," Hild said with a frown.

And then, in the distance, something screamed so loudly it filled Nifelheim.

"The Abyss just opened," Hild said. "Get to the Rakshasha, Mara, we have to go in there and seal those..."

At which point the two demonesses felt their connection to Nidhog, and it's connected power, stop suddenly.

Within sight, a half-god resident suddenly collapsed into seizures, and several Hild knew to be converted humans from ages past did likewise.

"It's starting," Hild said as she moved the side and started grabbing her armor and weapons.

"I'll go join the Rakshasha," Mara said turning about. "If this is the rebellion, they could use support."

"No, go to the Civil areas," Hild said. "Get people out, the best support you can give us is giving us a clear field to fight unrestricted. And we'll need a Shadow when we get clear of this."

"As you wish, Mistress," Mara said, she paused before heading to her task. "If the Doublet System is down, I'd wonder, Mistress, if you can make sure Balor dies."

"Why is that?" Hild asked. "He is strong, but he has no followers any more. He's just another thug in the lot."

"Naiki Satomi cast one of his spells while she was mortal," the demoness noted. "She owes him at least one favor, maybe more. We'll need everybody we can get, and having that over her is not something anybody can afford."

Hild cursed.

"I'll see what I can do," Hild said. "Now go, you have civilians to escort to safety."

* * *

"Eija-chan," Belldandy said, as Eija arose out of an old patch of blood from a "testing accident" a few hours past. "This is a pleasant surprise."

She turned to look at Kaname and Sousuke and smiled in welcome. She noted the worried look on their faces and her smile faded slightly.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked.

"Mara said that Hecate is influencing a demon who guards the Doublet System," Eija said.

"She seemed to think it was an urgent matter," Sousuke added, catching his breath and suppressing the uncomfortable feeling of traveling through a small pool of blood.

Belldandy's eyes widened and she gestured for them to come with her inside.

"Lady Persephone," Belldandy called out. "Eija is here, there's something urgent. Urd? I need to see you."

Lady Persephone appeared in the hallway and smiled briefly as she saw Eija coming toward her.

"Eija," she said. "I think I could use your help with a newly dead..."

"Lady Persephone," Belldandy interrupted, obviously reluctantly. "I apologize, but they have said that Mara believes Hecate is planning an attack on the Doublet System."

"The Doublet System?" Persephone said aghast. "That's madness, the wars might start again."

"Why are we talking about the Doublet System?" Urd asked as she came in.

"This Hecate lady might be planning to attack it," Kaname said. "How many times do we have to say it."

"Why would...." Urd stopped as she and the other Goddesses in the room shivered.

"What? What is it?" Kaname asked.

"Yggdrasil just broke contact," Belldandy said with a stuttering tone.

"That's happened before," Urd said. "A crash can ...can..."

Urd's face screwed up several times as she tensed and started to lean against the wall. Across from her, Eija was likewise flinching and starting to breath heavily.

"Eija!" Kaname shouted, holding her tightly as the Satomi goddess collapsed.

Belldandy likewise caught Urd and kept from falling hard to the ground.

Keiichi and Skuld finally came to the source of the chaos and found the others sitting over the two goddesses afflicted while they were having seizures.

"What's going on?" Skuld demanded.

"Belldandy are you okay?" Keiichi asked as he came to his girlfriend's side and looked at Urd as she shook in obvious but silent pain in Belldandy's arms. "What's happening to Urd?"

"There's something attacking Eija!" Kaname said as she held tightly to her friend.

"A virus," Persephone said as she bent between the two. "This has to be what Hecate planted in the system. Eija is a converted mortal and Urd is half-demon."

"It's attacking the impure," Sousuke agreed.

A sound outside in the complex then, came to their attention. A sound like a multitude of voices singing. Sousuke moved toward a window and watched as several gates put out a number of obviously armed Gods into the grounds of the Temple of Fates.

"And they have boots on the ground," he said grimly as he drew a gun.

Sousuke counted the enemies coming onto the grounds outside. There were at least ten from what he gathered and they'd be coming in soon.

Skuld, upset and confused hopped over to one of the windows.

"Gates?" Skuld asked. "What's going on out there?"

"Get down!" Sousuke shouted as he reached out to pull Skuld aside.

A blast of fire twisted through where the young goddess had been staring in shock. She tumbled back as Sousuke put her out of the way, eyes widened.

Belldandy leaned over Urd, shielding her elder sister, as Keiichi did like wise for her and Kaname for Eija.

As the fire faded, Sousuke glanced out and fired his handgun several times. He grimaced as the Gods beyond mostly deflected the bullets in several manners, only one taking a grazing shot the shoulder.

And then the plants around the house grew up with rapid speed, sealing off the Shrine from the outside. At least for the moment.

"That'll buy us some time," Persephone said. "But not much."

Outside, the sound of attacks striking the summoned wood was already being heard. Sousuke traced the sound as it struck the side of barrier several times and then faded off.

"They tried to kill me!" Skuld declared, somewhere between anger and terror. "Why would they try to kill us?"

"Because we're powerful," Belldandy said sadly. "And we're loyal, and this place can survive as a rallying point."

Persephone looked to Belldandy quietly. She'd been first born after the worst of the war had ended and she'd never been part of it. She'd been through a number of life and death, and worse, circumstances since living with Keiichi, and few before, but for the most part her life had been peaceful.

Kaname continued to hold onto Eija, where she was still suffering from her attack. She looked toward Persephone and Belldandy.

"What do we do?" she asked. "Can we do anything for them?"

"Without Yggdrasil?" Belldandy said. "It'll be hard. Is there anything you can do?"

"I don't know," Kaname said. "She's come with me before, but I've never done the same with her. And it would just be her."

"If you can get to Eija, you can get to Urd," Persephone said. "It'll just be harder because you'll have to go through her defenses."

Sousuke frowned and looked toward the Goddesses.

"Can we leave the way we came?" Sousuke asked. "Through a 'medium'?"

"With Eija and Urd like this," Belldandy said, shaking her head as she stroked Urd's hair.

"Where's the weakest point on your wall?" he asked Persephone. "Do you know?"

"It's more or less uniform," Persephone said.

"They'll find one place and attack that then," he said. "I'll see what I can do for defenses."

"We'll help," Keiichi said, thumping Skuld on the shoulder. "Is Banpei all charged up."

"Oh, you can bet he is," Skuld said shaking angrily.

"Sousuke-kun," Belldandy said. "Try not to kill them."

Sousuke's face was almost unreadable and he looked toward Kaname and Eija, reading Kaname's face easily enough. There was anger there as she held Eija, a great deal of anger. And the pain on Eija's face was equally clear.

Belldandy followed Sousuke's look toward Kaname, and met the Whispered's eyes.

"Please," she said.

"Fine," Kaname said quietly. "We don't have time to argue about it."

Sousuke nodded.

The sound of renewed attacks on the wood summoned by Persephone came from the front entrance and Sousuke turned to look at Keiichi and Skuld.

"Let's get to work," he said.

"Kaname," Persephone said. "Belldandy and I will make sure that Urd and Eija are physically healthy. At least try to see if you can do anything."

Kaname nodded at that as Sousuke came back down with a collection of materials taken out of Keiichi and Skuld's rooms.

Sousuke exchanged a look with her and nodded himself. Kaname had agreed to try non-lethal methods first, and so that's what he was working on.

He rigged a trip wire at the entrance and was retrieving a tear-gas grenade as Skuld and Keiichi joined him, the young man carrying a pair of fans. This he connected to the trip wire and hung over the entrance that was currently being assaulted.

"Put the fans in the hallway and point them this way," Sousuke said. "We don't want the gas coming back at us."

"What are you doing with a gas grenade?" Keiichi asked. "Do you carry one of those around you all the time?"

"You carry your tools," Sousuke said. "I carry mine."

"Who considers a gas grenade a tool?" Keiichi asked to himself.

Skuld meanwhile sat down and dropped a number of her Skuld bombs at her feet with a clatter. Sousuke glanced toward the sound, looked back at his booby trap and then whipped his head around again.

"Your sister requested we not kill anyone," Sousuke noted.

"Oh, they're going to wish they were dead," Skuld said as she ran up to get more items.

"They're sort of like very painful flashbangs," Keiichi said.

"Lots of smoke?" Sousuke asked.

"Right," Keiichi said. "Lots and lots of smoke."

"That'll be good," Persephone noted. "Unless they think there are demons here, they won't be ready for smoke and gasses."

Sousuke drew an extendable baton out of his clothes and handed it to Keiichi.

"There's something I'd like you to do to this if possible," the mercenary said blandly.

"Fine," Keiichi said. "But I think I'm going to raid Urd's lab too. She doesn't label her stuff in a way anybody can understand, but I remember what some of the combinations can do."

* * *

The attacking Gods grumbled as they focused their attacks on Persephone's barrier. They should have had their own powers returned in full by now.

That was the plan.

Instead they were struggling with nothing more than their natural powers. So, rather than blasting through Persephone's barrier, they had to chip away at it slowly.

However, now they were almost through and within were three of the most powerful Goddesses, but one should have been incapacitated and the other two reduced in power and only one old enough to remember the wars.

With Skuld still growing into her power, that meant the people inside were more or less defenseless. The mortals of course, were of no consequence.

"I'll take the cur with the firearm," one said as he rubbed at his shoulder that was still unhealed given they had no healers with him.

"If you can, Kratos," another said with a smirk. "Someone else might get there first."

The named God growled as he slammed an axe into the barrier, slicing it open with a final blow and clearing the way towards the door. He glanced toward the others and pushed himself forward bursting open the doorway.

Almost immediately, a small bang came with the appearance of a cloud of demonic seeming smoke that washed over them with a burning sickly smell. It thrust down Kratos's throat and floated past him, pushed by a soft wind into the other Gods as he choked and shook himself to try to free the burning sensation.

"What is this?" Kratos demanded. "There aren't supposed to be any demons here."

As he coughed and waved, trying to concentrate and summon his strength to push aside the burning effect of the gas that had stalled their invasion. But he had little time to do much of anything as a figure wearing the human version of a fume-blocking helmet moved into the cloud.

He swung out with a thin rod of metal which slammed into Kratos's legs with a crackling sound of lightning. He could feel the power burning up his muscles, like one of Zeus's small bolts. This was followed with an impact that sent Kratos rolling out of the entrance into the crowd of coughing Gods outside.

Sousuke followed the tumbling God out onto the yard, drawing his pistol into his free hand. He carefully placed each shot as the Gods were distracted. A knee here, a shoulder there until he was out of ammunition and the pistol became a bludgeon.

Behind Sousuke, the girl's robot rolled into the entrance, weapons armed. A missile lashed out at one group of Gods, raising more smoke and distracting them further from a coherent attack. A blast of fire erupted from one of them just missing Sousuke and striking the wooden barrier again.

He responded by swinging out his electrified baton, smacking the God across the face. Then he moved aside as a pair of Skuld bombs landed near him, and he passed into the thicker smoke.

"Where is he?" one of the Gods shouted.

Sousuke bumped into the God and then rolled away. Predictably, the God whipped around and blasted out with a display of lightning that struck, not Sousuke, but another God.

As the fooled deity started to realize that he had just blasted an ally, Banpei targeted him along with both Keiichi and Skuld tossing bombs.

Sousuke was still moving in the smoke and coming up to another God, this one trying to stand with a destroyed knee, and whipped down with his baton at the back of the target's neck.

More Skuld Bombs added to the thick smoke, and, among them where other bursts of strange, foul-smelling gasses that continued to make the field one of distraction and choking for the Gods.

Sousuke tossed aside his pistol and drew a knife as he moved to the next God he could find in the smoke. Slashing at joints and swinging with the electrified baton.

Finally, one of the Gods gathered enough concentration to through a burst of wind over the battlefield, just in time to see a Banpei rocket slam into his face.

Kratos, still standing on the field looked around in shock at his unconscious or groaning comrades and then turned to look at Sousuke, face covered by a gas mask that gave him an even more expressionless look than normal.

"Mortal," he said. "You'll pay for these cowardly tactics."

That said, Kratos charged forward, and swung out with a fist. Sousuke dodged aside most of it, but the fist caught the edge of his gas mask. It twisted the mask about on his face and sent him spinning through the air.

Sousuke landed several feet away and reached up to tear the ruined gas mask off his face. He grimaced, just a glancing blow had sent him flying and he thought for sure that he had at least a cracked jaw.

He couldn't take a full strike from this man. He probably couldn't sustain more glancing blows. Which meant he had to take him down quickly. He had an idea how to do that.

The problem being that he hadn't quite pulled it off yet.

Kratos smirked and rolled his shoulders as he approached Sousuke.

"I am Kratos, God of Strength," he said. "No mortal can face me in battle."

Definitely a cracked jaw, as he breathed, and his neck was sore. Twisted or torn muscles perhaps.

Kratos laughed and strode forward arrogantly as Sousuke came to his feet, clutching the baton turned stun rod.

"Well, mortal," Kratos said. "Do you have anything to say?"

"Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Sousuke called out, ignoring the pain in his jaw.

He whipped forward with his baton in a swift barrage of strikes that were hard for him to direct.

The discharges of electricity and strikes came so quickly on top of each other that it looked like a blast of electricity that covered the arrogant God, whose face winced with each blow.

When it was done Sousuke's arm felt like lead and the baton cracked into pieces. Letting his arm fall back, he twisted into a spinning roundhouse to smash into Kratos's face, sending the dazed God to the ground.

Sousuke stood straight and twisted his shoulder carefully. He'd finally pulled off the technique, but apparently he didn't have it completely down yet, because his arm felt numb, exhausted.

"Is that it?" Keiichi asked as he came out, a bottle of some sort of gas in hand just in case.

"They sent a bunch of category three losers here?" Skuld demanded.

"Aren't you category three?" Keiichi asked.

"That's temporary!" Skuld protested. "I'm not finished growing up yet."

Sousuke grimaced silently and started moving about tying up and gagging the attackers. He looked into the house and hoped Kaname's task was going just as well.

* * *

Ranma caught Naiki in her fall and lay her down quickly.

"I thought she was going to be fine," Kyoko said.

"New attack," Ranma said quickly.

"New what?" Akane asked.

"Naiki ran across a ghost in a mindscape recently," Ranma said. "Was hurt pretty badly protecting a friend. This is something almost the same. I need to make a circle. Pigtails, watch her please."

Kyoko nodded and took Ranma's place holding Naiki as

"Anything we can do to help?" Akane asked.

Ranma moved to the side and picked up her bag where she left, drawing out her Ba Gua map and a pile of charm paper strips. She handed these to Akane and Ryuu.

"Hexagrams," she said. "Use chi."

She looked further into her bag and frowned as something seemed to be missing.

"Has anybody seen a crystal on a chain?" she asked.

"Errm," Mizuki said, looking embarrassed. "You mean, like a necklace?"

"Give it over," Ranma said, holding out her hand.

"What makes yo..." Mizuki started.

"Now," Ranma insisted.

Mizuki laughed a little bit as she turned over the necklace, an amethyst at the end of a chain. She was blushing in embarrassment.

Giving the blond an aggravated look, Ranma wrapped the chain around her hand and moved toward the destroyed terrain to start drawing a circle. She wasted no time in drawing the circle.

A wide circle with the trigrams along the edges and focused inward where a space about the size of a body sat inside of a second circle.

Kyoko watched as she took out her peach again, this time cutting into it and pulling a piece out. She bent over toward Naiki and pulled open her mouth to put the slice of peach into the demoness's mouth.

She watched as the look of pain on Naiki's face and the seizures eased.

Ranma came to Naiki's side then and looked at the sliced peach in Kyoko's hand. She noted the energy filling it.

"One of Persephone's?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah," Kyoko said. "I thought it would be a little bit of help."

"It should be a lot of help," Ranma said as she reached down to pick Naiki up and carry her over to her circle. "If you've got those charm papers finished, I can get started."

* * *

Persephone and Belldandy had taken Eija and Urd into the living room for a little bit more space so that they could draw their own circles to focus their healing efforts. Kaname sat in the middle between both the stricken Goddesses and was already in the trance to move deeper into her connection with Eija.

"I wish we had the room to do this right," Belldandy said. "I don't like the idea of Kaname-chan being in there alone."

"Unfortunately," Persephone said. "An anti-virus circle that would fit into this room would take time we don't have, you'd have to make the details much too small. We'll have to settle for a healing circle."

* * *

"We're about to have two new problems," Tessa said, in something of a hurry. "On top of Amalgam."

"The Gods and Demons," Kalinin said. "The current leadership of both groups are more or less protective of humans from what you've said. But civil wars are always messy."

Mardukas nodded.

"Even if they win," Mardukas said. "We'll have to deal with the escapees."

"Direct issues won't be a problem for a time," Tessa said. "They're not going to target us yet. Until then, our main problem is still Amalgam."

"And your new device?" Mardukas asked.

"I've already talked to Sarah Miller," Tessa said, voice still insistent and eyes moving to the side. "But we'll have to save that for a bit. I apparently still have my own mission to carry out."

"Ma'am?" Mardukas asked.

"Naiki Satomi," Tessa said. "She's helped me more than a few times, I'm going to return the favor. I'll be out of touch for a little bit, please handle any calls in my stead."

"Yes, Captain," Kalinin said. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"I have more protection now," Tessa noted. "I think I'll be fine."

"The girl you're helping reportedly has the same protections," Kalinin reminded her.

Tessa nodded.

"Perhaps one of these girls here?" Mardukas suggested.

"None have the necessary ability to come with me," Tessa said, trying not to sound impatient.

"If your device..."

"I'm hearing her trying not to scream through my head," Tessa said. "It's eased, but I need to help her. So, dismissed."

Kalinin and Mardukas saluted, waited for her to return it and then walked, very reluctantly out of the door.

Left alone, Tessa sat down at her desk and focused on the sound of Naiki's mind in the back of her own.

* * *

Kaname was mildly used to the chaotic flow of equations and numbers that existed in the Whispers, but she hadn't yet seen the multitude of songs that existed within the network of God-minds. It vaguely reminded her of tapes she had heard of whale-song.

Symbols flowed within the golden song, and though she didn't recognize them, she knew they had to be the numbers and mathematical symbols of a language that had been used long before mankind evolved.

Eija's black soul was kneeling in the midst of a string of symbols floating about her, latching on as she tried to stand up. Other symbols, however seemed to be moving in to support the death seer. Those were probably from the effort of Persephone and Belldandy.

_Eija,/i Kaname said, moving forward into the swarm of lights. She flinched back as one sliced past her._

_[i]Don't!_ Eija said to her. _I...I can handle it._

_This isn't a ghost,_ Kaname told her firmly. _Persephone said it's a virus. And since I'm the Whispered, that makes me the computer guru, doesn't it?_

In the Whispers, she was confused because of a simple overload of information. There was so much going on it was hard to focus on anything and your head started to hurt. Here, actually, she could tell that would have been a problem except for one thing.

She didn't understand the songs or symbols well enough to be overwhelmed. To her, it was just a bunch of pretty lights. Made it hard to do anything about it.

_Eija, can you read these symbols?_ Kaname asked.

_Yes,_ Eija said with a gasp as she started to stand up again. _Why?_

Kaname gritted her teeth and nodded as she pushed herself through the swarm of symbols despite Eija's renewed protests.

_What are you doing?_ the goddess asked as Kaname reached her.

_I'm borrowing something again,_ Kaname said as she put her arms on Eija's shoulders and leaned forward to touch her head to Eija's.

* * *

Tessa was surprised to find that the Whispers were much less cluttered than she was used to finding them. Instead of an overwhelming cascade of numbers and equations, she instead found only a single path of equations leading out of the Whispers, toward where she could feel Naiki was.

Tessa took a cautious moment to think, wanting to make sure this wasn't something dangerous. Slowly the Whispers started to return to what she was most used to. Smiling, she focused on Naiki again, and the Whispers and equations faded away to just that single path yet again.

Following it, she left the Whispers behind to find herself coming to a red realm that smelled vaguely of sulfur. All around her, she could hear the raucous calls of something between a bird and a reptile.

Instinct told her that this was a dangerous place, but she moved forward anyway, until she came to find Naiki's sea green form in the middle of the calls.

Naiki lashed out angrily at a swirl of golden symbols that surrounded her. White equations and numbers, like those she knew from the Whispers, swirled outside of the situation, dipping in to interfere with the golden symbols.

Strangely, golden lines seemed to be passing through Naiki's sea-green form. Those didn't seem to be harming her, instead they were slipping in to repair where the swirling symbols attacked her.

_Naiki,_ Tessa said. _I'm here to help._

_I dealt with this before,_ Naiki protested. _Don't get hurt in here, I'll...be fine._

Tessa smiled at Naiki encouragingly as the demoness tried to remain stoic and swallow any indication of pain, just like before. Standing well back, Tessa analyzed the situation from her position.

_Don't worry, Naiki,_ she said. _I'm not going to be reckless and just barrel ahead without a plan._

Broadening her perspective showed a similar flow of symbols about the mindscape of the Demons. She didn't recognize the symbols which looked sort of claw scratches of some sort. They didn't match at all the wavy watery symbols that were in the golden swirls attacking Naiki.

She narrowed herself again to just the symbols attacking Naiki and those white symbols around her. Then she focused just on the white symbols. Taken alone, it was easy to recognize. The equations had all the markings of a security program, a viral search and destroy.

It was mostly attacking the golden symbols, but it had troubles avoiding Naiki. Probably because Naiki was not human.

_How are you?_ Tessa asked. _Are you doing fine?_

_Yes..._ Naiki said. _Mom's doing an exorcism...I've...I've felt that before. And something is healing me._

_Exorcism,_ Tessa repeated. _I'm guessing that's the white numbers./I_

_Tessa thought for a moment, if she knew more about the other two elements of this situation, she might be able to alter the anti-virus equation to be more effective._

_Tessa was wondering how to do that when the wavy, golden symbols surrounding Naiki started to make sense to her. It was coming to be quite clear as a virus. An incomplete virus at that, if Naiki hadn't already suffered from a recent attack, it probably couldn't permanently harm anything. But as long as it remained, whatever it infected wouldn't operate correctly._

_She'd already identified the golden symbols as indicators of something made by the Gods, since the red claw shapes seemed to match up to Naiki._

_But now she could understand them?_

_She remembered a little of a report she'd gotten from Psyche on magic. That it was the practice of borrowing abilities from other people for your own purposes. Perhaps knowledge could also be borrowed, and if that knowledge came to one Whispered, it was available to everyone._

_No wonder Gods and Demons can supposedly speak all languages,_ Tessa noted.

_What?_ Naiki asked gritting her teeth.

_Not important,_ Tessa said.

She knew at least one Whispered with a connection to a God, or rather Goddess, meaning Kaname was trying to help Eija. Most likely barreling straight ahead into the situation.

In any case, it gave Tessa enough to knowledge to alter the anti-virus to more aggressively attack the God-written virus. Moving forward, she reached out to interact with the anti-virus, which swirled outside of Naiki and the god-written virus.

_And that just leaves getting your mother's exorcism to recognize you as the victim,_ Tessa noted.

She pushed into the situation, wrapping herself in the anti-virus so she could reach Naiki relatively untouched.

_Are you crazy?_ Naiki demanded, panting. _You'll...why aren't they attacking you?_

_Because between you and your mother, assuming you're right,_ Tessa responded, _They have too many targets to keep track of already. I told you, I don't rush in without a plan. Now, let's see how to get the information I need out of you._

_Excuse me?_ Naiki asked. She seemed to be breathing a bit easier.

* * *

Ranma's eyes snapped open.

"Something wrong?" Akane asked, noting the shift in expression.

"The chi flow changed," Ranma said. "Something else is involving itself. More than this curse."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Kyoko asked

Ranma watched the energies about her daughter and analyzed them for a moment as she continued to channel the chi into her circle.

"It's a good thing," she said. "Ryuu, can you move that charm to...there, I think this would work better if I'm working along with the other side to this."

* * *

Kaname retreated back from Eija, panting to recover. At least she understood the symbols surrounding her friend now, but that left her without much of a clue of where to go from here.

And now there was again that sense of overwhelming flow of information.

So much going on that it was hard to focus on anything. In some places she couldn't make out the background equations that had nothing to do with her problem, for those attacking Eija.

_Kaname, don't do that again,_ Eija told her. _I'll be fine. I don't think it can kill me._

_Okay, okay,_ Kaname said. _I got it. I think I have an idea._

She forced herself to shut everything out but the problem, and reached into the pool of Whispers briefly to find any solution she could. Very briefly, she didn't have Eija watching her back right now and she didn't think she could deal with that ghost if it came after her again.

Slowly, very slowly from her point of view, the answer came clear and she had an idea for something to do. Something she only had to tweak a little bit to make sure it attacked just the virus thing and not Eija.

* * *

The shaking and pained expression on Eija's face started to lessen as Sousuke, Skuld and Keiichi came back inside.

"How are things here?" Sousuke asked, wincing from what Persephone clearly recognized as a broken jaw.

"Eija-chan is improving," Belldandy said.

"Kaname is closest to Eija, it would have to start with her," Persephone noted.

* * *

Tessa watched as the golden virus was slowly and surely torn apart by the chi "exorcism", altered by her. Tessa smirked at the thought of the term.

Ranma Satomi perhaps looked at magic and psychic abilities with a more or less deductive and analytical mindset, and had a disdain for self-professed mystics and prophets. However, she still used the lexicon of those mystics.

_That's it then,_ Naiki said, relieved.

Tessa considered for a moment.

_Not quite, I think_ she said. _I doubt you're the only demon affected by this virus._

_But I'm the only demon you can reach,_ Naiki said. _So let's get out of here before something else shows up._

Naiki stared at Tessa as she reached out toward the white equations forming her mother's exorcism, and altering it again. A moment later, the white equation swept out into the field of red, sulfurous calls.

_What did you just do?_ Naiki asked.

_A virus for a virus,_ Tessa said with a victorious smile.

* * *

Eija breathed much easier as the virus was taken apart and left her free and clear, standing with Kaname. Half leaning on her as Kaname's form patted her on the back.

_Thank you, Kaname,_ Eija said.

_I'm getting very good at taking care of you when you're unconscious,_ Kaname said.

_Yes, I suppose that's true,_ Eija said, clearly embarrassed. _Let's leave, that spirit might return if she knows you're here._

_I'm supposed to help Urd,_ Kaname said. _But I don't even know how to find her. Can you?_

_I'm not sure,_ Eija said. _If she were dead...but that wouldn't be of much use by that time. It's a pity you can't make the anti-virus go to Urd._

Kaname blinked and looked toward Eija as she tried to remember what the part of the golden virus was that made it move and reproduce.

_Actually,_ Kaname said. _Maybe I can._

Slowly, Urd blinked awake and feeling the hangover to end all hangovers.

"What did I drink?" she muttered.

"A virus," Belldandy said. "But you should be fine now. Kaname-chan successfully purged the virus."

"Kaname?" Urd said, looking over to where the blue-haired girl was sitting with Sousuke and Eija. "How did she do that?"

* * *

"Oww," Naiki said as she sat up, looking around and seeing the exorcism circle she was sitting in the middle of.

"How are you feeling?" Ranma asked, drawing Naiki's attention that way.

She was about to respond and then stopped.

"Surprisingly less hurting than last time," Naiki noted. "Why can I taste peaches?"

"That was me," Kyoko said, raising her hand and waving at Naiki.

Naiki flushed bright red for a moment, mind running a little wild.

"Are you sure she's all right?" Mizuki asked. "Her face just got really red."

Mara glanced toward the sound of fighting and grimaced. On Earth, she'd often tried to cut and run when a major fight broke out. Though usually, to now, the stakes hadn't been too high.

There was the Lord of Terror, but running there actually took away resources from the thing trying to destroy the world. Then there was the incident where she split Urd's halves, though that wasn't quite running. That was more getting information to the people who could fix the situation.

And at the same time getting blasted hard enough to need Bell to give her some healing.

Damn Urd was powerful.

Now, here she was, running again. Under orders this time.

She was standing at a terminal, trying to get a look at what was happening in Nidhog. Of course, with the system crashed, she was getting limited use of the terminal. It was harder to do a search by going through each connected element rather than through Nidhog.

"Damn it," she muttered turning away from the terminal and smacking it in frustration.

Behind her was the hospital where most of the non-combatants had gathered. Unfortunately, since they'd supplemented the healers with gods and half-gods who had more affinity for such arts.

This was the main evacuation point she'd set up, but not the only one. There were hundreds of thousands of demons and other residents in Nifelheim. Most were in the battle and she had to get the ones that weren't out. That was going to be hard to hide from Earth when masses of refugees started appearing from nowhere.

So she had commandeered a few other Shadows, intelligence gathering types, to run other camps. They weren't supposed to use anything on the lists, coming up with on the fly refuges that the old ones and their supporters wouldn't be aware of.

She looked to a pair of adolescents, Hel and Ays in youthful incarnations and pointed back toward the crowd.

"You two know how to teleport, right?" she asked.

"Of course we do," Hel said proudly. "But I should be over there, helping in this battle."

"Hel, you're about twelve right now," Mara noted.

"And I can already teleport," Hel noted. "So I am obviously powerful enough to help."

"Right, and this is how," Mara said. "You two find as many other teens as possible who can teleport and each of you grab as many of the kids as possible and get to Earth."

"Which location?" Ays asked.

"None of them," Mara said. "We'll need somewhere that nobody's watching. So try..."

She smirked.

"...I've got a place for you to go," Mara said, writing a few symbols into the air. "You won't be able to come back though. Nidhog's crashed, so travel is one way, prevents enemies from taking advantage."

"So should we start with the unconscious kids?" Ays asked.

"No, anybody infected stays here until cleared," Mara said. "We don't know what Hecate has set up for when they pass the barrier. Get going."

"Fine," Hel said. "I'll take the little rugrats out of here."

Mara rolled her eyes as the adolescents left and then looked toward the adults with her.

Surgeons, a few bureaucrats, tech support people unfortunately cut off by the fights going on. She didn't have much to run a defense with if someone came by while she was getting people out.

"First things first," she said walking toward the doctors and tech support. "You, we need to analyze this virus before we move people out of Nifelheim."

* * *

Hild frowned as a break in the fight came. Looking around her, she had a unit of twelve Rakshasha squadrons gathered around her. Scattered pieces of information said there were other small units scattered throughout Nifelheim.

"Move the bodies aside," Hild ordered, indicating the dead that were piled up after the last exchange.

The sound of an explosion ripped through the air somewhere nearby, and Hild looked in that direction, noting an immense approaching knot of pishogue.

Her mouth twitched as she realized what was coming and several Rakshasha appeared in the air around her, levitating.

"They have a carapace," she said before craning her head around. "Make that several."

"But you're the Daimakaicho," one of the Rakshasha said. "Aren't you a match for that?"

"Under normal circumstances," Hild said. "Easily, but with Nidhog crashed, things are a little bit more...equal."

Reaching out, she grabbed a Rakshasha and pointed to three more.

"Mara's running evacuation at the hospital," Hild said. "You four get there, give her some protection and tell her she has a time limit. Now."

The four indicated warriors left and the rest levitated in formation around Hild. One glanced back over his shoulder and back to Hild.

"Hild-sama," the Rakshasha said. "I'm seeing twelve of them from here."

"We had one disappear from mothballs recently, along with an old captured mantle," Hild said. "The Forge is supposed to be running an inventory to make sure they're all accounted for. I believe the assigned demon was one 'Zagam'."

"We killed Zagam in the last exchange," the warrior demon said.

"Exactly," Hild said. "Remind me not to delegate the task of making such an assignment in the future."

She turned toward the warriors collected around her.

"I want nine Rakshasha with piloting experience current or previous to go to the stores and see if there's anything left that works," she called out. "If you find two, send one to guard the evacuation. Everything else go hunting, two carapace's to a unit and take them on one at a time."

She turned back toward the carapace coming their way.

"The rest of us are going to get started without you," she said.

* * *

Mara watched the closing battle and then turned back toward her charges.

"The Daimakaicho insisted that you needed to hurry," the Rakshasha that had arrived a few minutes ago reminded her.

"We're working as fast as we can," Mara said. "You want to help, get to making antiviral circles so..."

"There's another virus," someone called out. "It's not mana. I'm not sure what it is."

Mara moved over next to him and reviewed the readout on the terminal. She arched an eyebrow as she recognized what she was seeing.

"It's chi," she said, impressed.

"Chi?" the tech said, and several demons turned toward them. "That's impossible. There's no human that can write such a thing. How do we stop it?"

"We don't," Mara said. "It's a custom anti-viral tagged with a viral cut and paste. It's basically a search and destroy bug for Hecate's little toy. Naiki's little friend at work."

"No one's had time," the tech said. "Much less a human."

"If you dive right into the information instead of using a terminal," Mara noted. "It could be done."

She directed the terminal toward another patient and found the chi-anti-viral already moving there.

"That's foolhardy!" the tech said. "There's almost no protection for you if you try that."

She looked past and noticed several of the stricken residents starting to ease out of symptoms. Looking back towards the running battle and grimaced.

"This is going to be close," Mara said. "Travel back is still closed, so we have to hold off, but as soon as everybody's clear. Start bugging out. We're last."

She pointed to herself and the four Rakshasha.

"All right," the tech said, still uncertain, but leaving to pass on the information.

"Now all we need is time," Mara said. "A little firepower would be nice too."

That last was accompanied by the sound of something large landing in the street ahead of them. Mara turned her head towards the sound and looked up to see a carapace standing over them. She swallowed briefly until the cockpit opened up and the pilot waved out toward them.

"Okay," she said, wide-eyed. "That'll do."

* * *

Hild dropped down out of the sky, dodging around the massive blast of energy that ripped up from the carapace's aura. Then her own aura flared to life as she matched against the enhanced one produced by the machine's pilot.

The auras roared against each other as the carapace pilot tried to shape his pishogue into weapons or spells to strike against Hild while she simply smiled and pushed inexorably inward with raw power.

The Rakshasha laid a series of supporting attacks on the carapace as Hild pushed the attack. Slowly but surely, the aura was cracking and weakening. The pilot tried to escape, but one of the Rakshasha had bound the machines legs to the ground.

In the moment of distraction that it took the pilot to try to free his leg, he lost his focus and Hild ripped down through his aura and the paper-fragile machine that it protected.

"That's three," she said with deep breath.

Battle was still going on around Hild as her squad battled the carapace's support. She stood straight and reached out to send a wave of raw pishogue past her warriors harmless until it reached her targets, where it crashed over them like a tidal wave.

She turned aside as those Demons slammed into walls, broke backs and bones and were otherwise left helpless as her own soldiers swarmed over them, making sure they were out of the fight.

"Next," she noted, looking toward the nearest knot of pishogue indicating another carapace.

Waving imperiously, she pointed down to the next target and glanced around to make sure her Rakshasha followed. One part of her noted that she was down another squad.

Four squads for three carapaces and support. An equitable trade.

The unit teleported as one and appeared around the rebel carapace and assorted helpers. Instantly the fight was raging.

Some tried to telekinetically pull her out of the air, giving a moment's of distraction as she flooded that link with pishogue. She didn't even look as the attacker burst into a bloody explosion of red light.

That had given the carapace enough time to fire on her, however, and she couldn't dodge aside from the blast of red lightning streaking toward her.

The Daimakaicho smiled as she held out her hand and the lightning split around her. From even a close distance, it appeared not to even scratch her, but Hild was skilled at hiding even minute weaknesses.

As soon as the lightning stopped, she released her blast of energy, flooding it forward as it clashed with the carapace's aura. The pilot leaped off to the side and Hild cut off her attack to watch its motion. The remnants of her own blast struck into the building that had been behind the carapace and reduced it to dust before fading away.

She was smiling when a second knot of heavy pishogue approached her position from behind. Darting straight upward, she barely dodged the rush of freezing wind that ripped out of the second carapace on the scene.

More Demons teleported in en masse to engage her Rakshasha support. They were still outnumbered, probably counting on the carapace to even things up for them.

The first carapace jumped in, trying to swing its clawed hand through Hild's position in the air. The Daimakaicho caught the razor clawed limb, a construction more than twice her physical size, and was pushed through the air several feet before she stopped it solid with an uncomfortable smile directed toward her attacker.

Her aura clashed dramatically with that of the carapace as it tried to extend its own pishogue to push hers back. The thing's organic limb was starting to burn away under Hild's hand from the strain when the second carapace leaped up as well

Hild dropped from her position with the first carapace, slamming her feet straight down into the aura of the second. The second machine tried to hold itself in the middle of the air, but the pilot couldn't manage both resisting Hild and maintaining flight for the whole machine.

With a crackle of short circuits, the second carapace fell out of the sky, it's protective aura shaky as Hild followed it down. The shield gave in partially and the Daimakaicho slammed into the machine, caving in the biological metal that made up its structure.

The first carapace was coming down on top of her, and she casually reached back with her left hand to unleash another burst of sheer power to toss the carapace backwards into a tumbling mess.

"Hild-sama!" the voice of the pilot underneath came out of the failing machine. "Hild-sama! Please, I...surrender."

Coldly, the demoness touched the defenseless machine's exterior and channeled a flow of power as she ripped outward, forming a blade of power that bisected the carapace in front of her. The resultant explosion washed over her harmless and she stepped out of the debris.

Glancing around, she kicked a piece of debris outward, sending it through the air to land on a trio of rebels about to flank her support. Then she turned to the first carapace, stretching out her fingers and popping the joints.

The carapace was trying to stand as she teleported atop of it and smashed downward before its pilot could gather the focus to protect himself or his machine.

Hild looked up and already knew there were more carapaces coming. She could feel it. The rebels had found her, and they weren't giving her a break.

"We're about to be overrun," she called back. "Get ready to...

She was interrupted when a trio of demons appeared around her. Criminals that she had judged herself.

First came a clap of heavy thunder and lightning as Ba'al Hadad lashed out at her with his inherent abilities. Followed immediately by a swing of a flaming blade from Surtur. Aside them was the demon she was much more concerned with: Balor.

He remained in the back, his deadly left eye closed for the moment.

They were all three in the ancestor forms, back from a time before they'd become more and more human. It was an unnecessary shift given the levels of power she and they both held. Something of observable benefit only to the younger demons. To use it against her was a bland attempt at fruitless intimidation.

Hild easily weathered Hadad's storm, a battle of aura pushing it to the side. She casually thrust her own hand, coated in power, into the escaped criminal's belly and through the other side as she turned Surtur's fire back on him and blasted him back into wall and a waiting squad of her Rakshasha.

Balor smiled and started to open his eye, prompting Hild to toss the dying Ba'al into him. The dying body struck Balor, taking him down to the ground. Instantly, a line of deadly light struck out from the demon's left eye, incinerating everything within his line of sight.

The blonde leader of the Demons watched as several of her loyal Rakshasha and even the rebels were suddenly wiped from existence.

His eye was closed as he looked back up at Hild, opening it again.

The blast of light reached out toward her. Under normal circumstances, she could have deflected the touch of that ray without the least pain or effort. Now, as she rushed down toward Balor, she had to focus to put forth the necessary power to survive his look.

The formorian's expression turned to panic as Hild came closer by the moment. She slammed down into the ground beside him the hand deflecting his deadly power pushing downward still.

Balor screamed in pain as his own power was forced down into his eye and he barely rolled out of the way before Hild finished him off.

He scattered to his feet as the Daimakaicho moved forward. All that was in his mind was that Hild should have been as weak as all the rest of them.

"How are you so strong?" he demanded.

Hild smirked.

"I am the last of the first," she said, swinging out a swath of pishogue that Balor only dodged by luck as he stumbled out of the way. "The Called. The last who remembers the cities of the tanar before the Fire came down and smote us into dust."

Once again, she attacked and grimaced as the demon in front of her was saved by a lucky stumble. He'd dropped his ancestral form and returned to looking human in his panic and fear.

"And insects like you are not even worth wiping off my boot heels," she finished, standing directly over Balor, hand pointed downward.

This time, there wouldn't be a way out for the scum and she could get back to dealing with carapaces.

The power started to build up and then the structures around her exploded, drawing her eyes to the three carapaces that charged in around her. Then came the burst of sulfur that told her, Balor had teleported away.

With a growl of anger, she unleashed a burst of destruction that tossed the newly arrived carapaces about on a tide of energy as the remaining structures around her powdered, only their own auras managing to keep them intact.

When Hild was finished, they were tossed about, attempting to stand. The pilot of one was popping the cockpit and scrambling to free himself until another bolt of power from Hild struck him and left no trace of his former existence save a spray of demonic blood splashed over the scene.

Behind her, the remains of the warriors she had brought with her congregated around her position, backing slowly away from five more carapaces behind her and their waves of support.

She could sense loyal supporters coming in on her position to support her, but they were too far away to be useful. She would have either won or lost by the time they reached her.

Looking back toward the Rakshasha that were already there, only ten left after this long exchange.

"Leave," she said simply.

"But Hild-sama," one of them said.

"Leave," Hild said firmly. "I'm going to handle these machines and then I'll join you."

They Rakshasha hesitated and then bowed, teleporting away in bursts of smoke leaving her alone.

She moved instantly, teleporting herself to appear right in front of the point of the oncoming carapaces, an aura maintained to shift off the weak attacks of unsuited rebel demons acting in support of the machines.

The bolts of ice and fire and lightning felt like pinpricks as she thrust pishogue into another pilot caught unprepared to focus his defense. The explosion scattered through the rebels around and toppled the two nearest carapaces backwards.

One of the falling carapaces twisted, trying to slice the bladed tail of the craft through Hild's position. As before the Daimakaicho caught the attack and this time ripped the tail out of the machine by main force and tossing the huge weapon through the air at another carapace.

That machine's aura deflected the deadly weapon, but only so that shattered into shrapnel which killed more of the rebels.

One piece of the exploding tail sliced through the air, cutting a line of blood across the side of Hild's head. She remained impassive, keeping a simple smile on her face despite what that small cut from a flying piece of shrapnel told her about how fatigued she was.

The two standing carapaces blasted out at her from either side and she leaped aside, letting the blasts meet in the middle and canceling out as the pilots cut off the attack after her dodge.

Two of the carapaces that interrupted her attack on Balor had succeeded in standing again and was moving back into the fight as Hild completed her leap, landing down on top of one of them.

Desperately the pilot triggered the enhancement of his aura to drive her off, but even growing tired, Hild's power melted through the unstable, panicked shield swiftly, her power obliterating the carapace underneath her and sending her flying through the air only just managing to avoid hitting the ground in an uncontrolled tumble.

The tailless carapace was trying to stand and the other four carapaces pointed to where Hild was standing up and unleashed blasts of enhanced powers in her direction.

She watched the attacks coming with her same casual smile and taking a deep breath.

* * *

The ground shook as all corners of Nifelheim were lit up as if by the fires of creation.

Mara stepped forward and watched the explosion in the distance where everything within what had to be a two mile radius was overrun by the burst.

The Demoness of Smoke shivered as she felt a sudden and profound loss as the demons around her cheered at the display of the Daimakaicho's power.

"We need to go now," she said through a choking throat.

"But after that," someone said.

"That was us losing this battle," Mara snapped. "Go now, grab everybody you can...even the still infected. We'll have to risk moving them with the virus."

Confused and suddenly scared, the demons about her, mostly non-combatants, did as she commanded and, in moments the area was clear.

* * *

A hundred or more demons carefully climbed down into the crater that had just been appeared in the center of Nifelheim. Slowly, they crept in on the woman standing on a pinnacle of untouched rock at the center the crater.

The blonde figure of Hild stood, hand outstretched and frozen, superior smile still on her face and eyes seeming to stare forward into nothingness. Uncertainly, as the rebel demons came closer, they readied their own lessened powers, just in case the Daimakaicho was still ready to fight despite her lack of motion.

As they started to relax, tension dropping as they surrounded her. The first signs of celebration were coming to the lips of the old ones who looked forward now to the ability to retake the Earth as they had always desired to do.

That's when Hild's hand slowly lowered and she creaked her neck around to look at the suddenly terrified Demons within ten feet of her.

"Boo."

And every one of the Demons within earshot burst into smoke. It triggered a cascade of panicked teleporting, flight and full out running, those Demons that didn't flee by flight or teleportation trampling over each other in an attempt to get away from the apparently still alive Hild.

Leaving Hild alone with one last laugh before the light did die in her eyes.


	27. First Battle Ends

Hecate stopped in her tracks as she felt something. She knew exactly what it was, her virus telling her that the Doublet System had been disabled. She stopped in metal of her work and leaned back in the chair she was sitting in.

Yggdrasil will have crashed, travel in was blocked.

She was going to be unable to take part in her own rebellion.

There was a long moment of silence as she sat there simply staring out at the wall of this wooden, human built hovel that she'd taken up residence in until she was ready.

And then the building exploded outward, leaving her standing in the middle of it fuming angrily.

"I've been planning this for millenia," she said as she strolled about the wreckage of the cabin. "I wrote the viruses tested it in parts. Designed the changes to the Doublet System. I made the contacts, acquired the necessary materials and armaments. I only needed two things: Carriers for the virus and someone to shut down the Doublet System."

She growled.

"How did that half-breed mortal accomplish this?" Hecate wondered. "It's inconceivable."

Hecate was practically frothing at the mouth as she continued to pace and throw her tantrum. A very childish reaction, she had to admit, but at the moment she had little else she could do.

"Granted, it was also inconceivable that humans would have developed their own mantles," she said. "How to salvage this. I can't be on hand for taking Asgard now. That'll make taking the power quite a bit trickier. I'll have to wait for that stooge to reboot the Doublet System, and I'll still be in position."

She smiled and calmed down somewhat and then looked about the forest surrounding her. Her eyes took in the animals that had drawn closer in curiosity toward the sound of her anger.

Anger which wasn't quite done yet. She was missing a chance to draw the blood of those that had pushed her and her people out of their proper place.

At least those that had directly done so.

She glanced down through the forest toward the village at the base of the mountain she was secluded on. There were humans down there, and humans were the most recent source of corruption to her people.

Animals were always a particular favorite tool of hers.

A dark smile worked over her face as she anticipated the blood that would be spilled, and then she reached outward in either direction with her hands and listened as the animals about her reacted to her power.

* * *

Peorth typed hurriedly at the terminal, looking up occasionally toward Yggdrasil. The first thing that had to be done was to boot up Yggdrasil or they couldn't get anything else done, and there was a lot that needed to get done.

The sound of an explosion outside the tech room drew looks out the window to what was going on outside from the various Goddesses that had been called in to help repair the damage Hecate had done.

"Pay attention to your job," Peorth said quickly. "Don't get distracted."

What they really needed was a viral expert, but of course the best they had of those were Demons.

And that was part of their problem.

* * *

Kami-sama stood up and looked out into the wide expanse of Asgard, a quiet sadness filling him as he saw the smoke rising in places across the wide, seemingly endless plain.

It brought to mind too much of the early days of the war between Demons and Gods. A war that had done little but devastate both their peoples and set up an age of continued conflict and antagonism.

They'd brought the bloodshed down by the use of Damoclean Sword hanging over the innocent and bloodstained alike, but they had not stopped it.

Not directly.

And the proof of that was staring at him in the face outside his office.

If they were lucky, this would be the last gasp of the old hatreds.

If they were unlucky, it would mean a renewal of the blood ages.

Calmly, he turned about and began to walk out of the office.

The mantle walked through the streets, graceful and menacing. Long oval-shaped limbs built of some bluish, organic material. It were walking through the streets, heads twisting this way and that, seeking their targets. Like several other such units throughout the vast expanse of Asgard.

As it passed a pair of close buildings, a dozen or more Gods followed behind it, scanning to the side and looking for saboteurs. None seemed able to pierce through the darkness of an alley and scanned past it without noticing a thing.

So they didn't see when the darkness pulled away, revealing several Gods packed into the alley waiting patiently. Among them a handful of valkyries.

Lind stepped out into the open street, glancing around quietly before gesturing to the other people in the shadows.

She led the attack along with three other valkyries, moving with utmost silence to avoid alerting the mantle pilot so that his vehicle's weapons could be brought to bear.

Behind them, several gods and goddesses prepared to use their own abilities in support. One was already sitting and concentrating hard to keep the silence absolute and preserve the element of surprise.

As the valkyries reached up close to the first rank of rebel Gods, the attack began.

The valkyrie charged through the supporting Gods, leaving them to the others. Their target was the mantle before the pilot realized something was going on and concentrated to activate its aura, at which point they weren't equipped to handle it with Yggdrasil down.

Around them, the other rebels were being overwhelmed by a host of effects. Darkness blinded them, ice froze them and plants bound them. They were outnumbered even if the majority of the rebels were war gods rather than techs and other such misfits, but those misfits had a number of useful powers beyond just blasting things.

And then the valkyries slashed their swords and other weapons into the mantle slashing it to pieces before its pilot could do much of anything. Then they turned back towards the bound Gods and ruthlessly turned their blades on those rebels.

Their support winced at the blood shed, but this wasn't the first ambush they had made. The winces were becoming less common, unfortunately, and less extreme.

The civilians were becoming desensitized, at least temporarily. Likely there were going to be consequences later, but Lind was more worried about the present at the moment.

With a gesture she signaled for the silence to be dropped.

"Is this really working?" one of her valkyries asked. "We don't have the manpower to do anything, and these civilians are going to break if we keep this up."

"No choice," Lind said. "We have to buy time for this virus to be corrected and everybody else can get out. Then numbers are on our side again. And I'd call taking down a mantle something."

"There are at least fifteen more of them," the other valkyrie noted. "We're not going to catch all of them in an ambush."

"We're buying time," Lind said. "Come on, we've been in the open too long."

Then the mantle appeared at the end of the street, a blast of energy already ripping down the street toward the valkyries and civilian volunteers.

Bodies flow past Lind as the blast just missed her and faded away showing that a third of their group had been obliterated in that single attack.

"Run!" she shouted. "Find cover!"

They fled, the three remaining valkyries hanging behind the civilians, only some of whom thought to toss back anything they could to delay pursuit.

* * *

Peorth wiped at her forehead with the sleeve of her robe and dried her hands on her towel. They weren't making enough progress. Usually after a major crash, it would take a day or longer to restart the system, and she was trying to get it done in no more than an hour or more.

However, most crashes, as uncommon as they were, did not have such a wide-spread effect. Tartarus, for instance, remained locked and active regardless of Yggdrasil's status. No previous crash had taken a third of their population out of action either. The third that included a large number of their warriors and police forces and counter-espionage experts.

Most crashes also did not have the majority of the remaining such residents turn rebel and go around killing people with ancient war-machines.

Still, it had to be possible.

They had to be able to get Yggdrasil up and running. The healers were already working on clearing the affected residents, those that had reached the healers and not been found by the roving murder squads at least.

Even if the stricken Gods and Demons did not immediately recover after being cleared, the majority of the loyal Einherjar and Eyes of Ra were category ones with Yggdrasil running fully. That would be enough of an edge.

The fighting outside was getting closer.

* * *

Morrigan rolled out of the way of the lightning bolt and back to standing. She didn't remain stationary for more than half a heart beat, diving forward and ducking low under another burst of lightning.

"You don't really think you can beat me, do you?" Zeus asked.

She came up inside close to Zeus and slammed her fist into his abdomen. Then her leg slipped out kicking Zeus's out from under him.

"I don't need a weapon to fight with," Morrigan snapped back.

The former war goddess was preparing to stomp down on Zeus's skull when the downed God blasted upwards with a burst of lightning that took the raven Goddess off of her feet and landed her several yards away.

Both moved up to their feet and Zeus lashed out again with lightning as Morrigan leaped over it.

"Your granddaughter could fight too," Zeus said smugly as Morrigan landed next to him.

That earned him a heavy knee to the gut and a tight blow to the throat. And the barrage continued from there with sharp knuckle jab to a soft spot of the skull. Stumbling backward, Zeus was struck again by Morrigan, her face wild with rage and pain.

Despite that, he kept the smile on his face and didn't seem to mind the injuries he was receiving. Indeed, he barely seemed to be putting up a fight, finding Morrigan's attempts to beat him to death.

After several seconds, his entire body charged with lightning, forcing Morrigan back. A painful charge worked visibly over her as she landed back again, leaving Zeus to stand up and dust himself off and shift his joints about.

"You know, when I killed my father," Zeus said. "He cursed me. The bastard actually cursed me, saying that some day, one of my children would kill me."

Morrigan stood up herself, facing Zeus angrily.

"I don't care about your family history," Morrigan said, face delving further into one of rage.

Despite himself, Zeus stepped back away from the Goddess, his confident smile fading into something that showed more concern.

The Goddess seemed to surge forward as her now seemingly taloned hands reached up to grab Zeus throat, a darkness leaking out of her into him.

He choked and grimaced painfully as the power of the Morrigan attacked him body and soul. Angrily, he gritted his teeth and twisted his head around to meet Morrigan's eyes. Bitterly he smirked as a crackle of lightning slashed across his eyes.

The God of the Sky gripped Morrigan's arms, holding her tight instead of pulling her hands away from his throat. And then he coursed lightning out of his body into Morrigan's.

The darkness of fear and confusion that radiated out of her receded reluctantly, strain growing on her face until she closed her eyes tightly against the continuous surge of lightning. Lightning that wasn't being broken by her getting thrown back across the field of battle.

"I don't think you fully understand," Zeus said.

"I...understand plenty," Morrigan said tightly, trying to keep her strength in her grip around Zeus throat.

"I'm cursed you simple-minded bitch," Zeus said. "I'm supposed to die by the hand of my own children. Are you strong enough to break Chronos's curse? I'm much older than you, and he was millenia older than I was."

The strength in Morrigan's hands faded despite her will. She still refused to cry out in pain, keeping her anger as a fire against the strain of the electricity burning through her.

"You. Will. Pay." Morrigan said.

"I don't think so," Zeus said, calm again. "Like I said, Chronos was strong. Anyone who tries to kill me will always have something in their way. The circumstances will always turn in my favor, because I'm being saved for the fate I served him. And I treat my children well, so I don't think there's any out there that will turn against me."

Morrigan's leg lanced out and pulled behind Zeus's knees, breaking the connection with him as he full to the ground.

Slowly, Morrigan took a deep breath upon breaking free of the punishing current Zeus had been sending into her. Looking down at Zeus with a twisted lip, she cricked her neck.

"Maybe you should consider that the mothers need to be treated just as well," the Celtic Goddess said before turning to walk away reluctantly. "I'll be there when one of them comes to kill you."

"Maybe, maybe not," Zeus said with a weary smirk as he reached out toward Morrigan's back.

"I'd stop there," Morrigan said hoarsely. "Because if you start this again, I'm not going to try to kill you, but I dare you to try to heal the wounds I'll leave you. Your curse doesn't protect you from humiliation and mutilation does it."

Zeus faltered briefly and lowered his hand before smirking again.

"If you actually think that would work," he said. "You'd have done it."

"I want you whole when you are finally crushed," Morrigan noted bitterly. "Even if I can't do it myself."

She started walking again, heading into the trees and limping towards Yggdrasil, where the other loyal gods were being forced.

* * *

Kali moved among the many stricken Demons and half-Demons, checking them out and deciding which should be next for the anti-virus treatments.

Most of her department was gutted by this virus, many had died at the hands of the rebels before they could be gotten to help. That had mostly occurred in the first few minutes, when the first ambushes occurred, but many had died in what the rebels called purifications.

She gritted her teeth and moved to the next patient, though this one did not seem to be in as much pain as the others. The Goddess of Destruction expected it to be a quick scan showing nothing except that the patient was resisting better than others. Instead she was surprised to find a sliver of chi working through the patient.

Kali looked up to find another patient who seemed better off and moved toward them as well.

The chi was there again.

* * *

Scanning around the room, and knowing now what she was looking for, she saw the chi slipping through several of the infected Demons and others. And it was clear what the chi was doing.

"Let's just hope it doesn't take much longer," Kali said.

At the foot of Yggdrasil, the remainder of the Gods who'd been resisting the assault of Hecate's rebels sat, staring out at the mantles and enemies that were surrounding them.

"They won't use the mantles in this attack," Lind said. "They won't want to damage Yggdrasil."

"They still far outnumber us," Athena noted. "And we lack our normal power. This continues to be a delay game. Unfortunately, the quickest restart time after a crash such as this is just under twenty-four hours."

"Then what would you think we should do?" Ares demanded. "Give them Yggdrasil?"

"Of course not," Athena noted. "However, we might consider the possibility of taking measures so that they cannot take control Yggdrasil."

"You mean destroying it," Bastet translated.

"It must be considered," Athena said. "They will eventually use the mantles to take this place before we can recover our full capabilities when Yggdrasil reboots. They will be able to repair the damage that results."

* * *

Kami-sama continued to look out over the world created ages ago when he wasn't the oldest of the those who heard the Song. A massive undertaking that had taken a multitude of Gods working in unison to craft the dimensional pocket and the lands within. Something that even he couldn't attempt to reproduce alone.

Down below, he could feel the net tightening around Yggdrasil. He had hoped it wouldn't get this far. That the rebels would not be as numerous as he feared. He supposed he should have hoped that the rebels would not be so much found among the warriors of the Gods.

However, the net had not been stopped, and now it was only a matter of time before Yggdrasil was taken by these rebels. Time that they did not have.

He sat down in his chair and took in a deep breath.

The leader of heaven might not have been able to create whole new worlds on his own, but there were many things below that which were equally useful to their current situation.

Not without price, however.

And with his reduced level of power, a reduced level of benefit as well.

* * *

"We can't..." Athena's argument was interrupted as the world around them shook.

Lind stood up and looked out to the land around Yggdrasil. The shaking of the ground knocked her back off her feet, but she ignored that to stand again, more carefully this time.

All the Gods looked among themselves to see if they knew what was going on and it was clear from their expressions that everything was a mystery.

And then the first crack appeared in the land beyond the tree. Quickly enough it was followed by others, cracks that gaped in the earth of Asgard and grew ever thicker and deeper.

Suddenly it occurred to the besieging rebels what was happening. They started to surge forward, trying to get past the cracks before they finished. Instead, all they managed to do, even the mantle, was to stop dead over the widening gaps and tumble down into the wide cracks in the Earth.

Lind fell off her feet again as, with a monstrous burst of shaking, the entirety of the land about Yggdrasil, lifted up into the air slowly but surely, still denying any attempt by the rebel Gods to reach the tree or the people within it.

It was only with a few mantles left that the rebels stopped trying to get onto the now flying rock. Slowly, the Yggdrasil and the land immediately about it twisted about, folding in on itself along with its passengers.

And vanished from Asgard.

And reappeared...elsewhere.

Kami-sama sat in his office, a look of sad relief on his face, frozen forever more.

* * *

Deimosu straightened, moving into stance as Gods and Demons landed around him, eyes wide and faces aghast as they stared at the ruins of the thing they had guarded for thousands of years.

"What have you done?" someone demanded.

"Released the hostages," Deimosu said.

"You've opened the gates to war!" another shouted.

A movement was made to take him, and Deimosu leaped back up through the hole that had lead him down to the Doublet System. It was filled now with angry and aghast Gods and Demons, but he still had some of the power he'd entered this place with.

Strangely, Deimosu still seemed to have almost the same level of advantage over the guards. He could feel it as the Gods and Demons suddenly lost a significant amount of power, while his was still just ebbing away.

He suddenly wondered if the garden had given them some sort of increased level of power. Something else that Hecate hadn't mentioned.

Deimosu reached a level of the fortress and jumped into it as a small warm came down the path he'd made. He was stopped however, when several of his pursuers stopped in their tracks in obvious pain before collapsing.

A thought occurred to him and he backtracked swiftly through those still standing back to the wide hole in the floors of the fortress. A body fell down toward him, but he snatched it out of the air before tossing the stricken guard into the solid ground beyond.

Others were falling as well, or trying to catch the fallen. One woman, apparently a Demon fell past any of those trying catch her, struck the edge of a destroyed floor and twisted away smashing her head on another outcropping before landing in a twisted pile at the bottom of the impromptu shaft.

Demons were a hardy species, and the woman was still alive, if barely. Though she was not the only to fall and not be caught. A God was quickly at her side then, checking her.

"What the hell is going on?" Deimosu asked no one in particular as he deposited the third guard that he'd successfully caught before their fall.

"We should ask you that," a God said angrily. "You're the one that attacked us."

"I came to get rid of the Doublet System," Deimosu said. "Not kill anybody. Is this some sort of sadistic contingency? The Doublet fails and everybody dies?"

Several Demons leaped up after him and Deimosu fell back, still confused as to what was going on.

They landed up on the fortress top again, Deimosu not sure at all about how this fight would go as he felt himself returning to his normal level of power, even if the Demons and Gods were now less in number and weaker as well.

"How did you learn how to get here?" one of them asked.

It wasn't Deimosu who answered.

"Hecate," a Demon just arriving said. "Hecate told him how to get here."

"That's right," Deimosu said. "She gave me the names of the Gods responsible for attacking my mother, and she told me how to make sure only they pay."

"And right now, she's leading the attack on Asgard," Vritra said as everyone looked at him. "And the Kindly Ones are taking control of Nifelheim. All the old Gods and Demons are freed. Because of you, thousands are going to die. And after that maybe millions."

Deimosu stood up straight, looking startled and aghast as the demon chuckled, seeming to lose any sense of reality.

"And there's no way to stop it," he said. "Even living under Hecate's thumb is going to be preferable to what you've let loose."

The guards stared in shock as Vritra collapsed to his knees, laughs turning to sobs.

When the sound of singing voices erupted around the lot of them, preceding the re-appearance of a gate. Demons and Gods alike turned about to face the gate, backing away in case more warriors came pouring out of it.

Instead a human girl reached out to grab Deimosu and pulled him back sharply. Several of the guards blinked and hesitated before moving forward, just missing the closing of the gate.

* * *

Natsume Tendo flexed her artificial limb carefully. It had been five years ago that she'd lost the limb, and four years ago that she'd been fitted for a prosthetic.

She was still getting used to it.

The med-techs had assured her that it would be able to do anything a human arm could do. Though they did admit a potential loss of flexibility or agility. Some sort of experimental piece of equipment she got for free as a sort of test run.

Of course, they weren't exactly aware of how much beyond the human norm she was. It was good enough for her to teach, and she was still among the best fighters in the world, but the arm was a definite weak point.

She listened to it as the artificial elbow audibly stretched and popped. A slight smell of ozone implied there was something off with the electrical system as well.

That meant it needed maintenance, she'd have to arrange a day trip out of town soon. After Kurumi's visit was over would probably be best. It was just going to get slower and stiffer otherwise.

Natsume pulled on her jacket and glove, hiding the metallic appearance of the prosthetic as she started to walk outside to enjoy the night air. She took a deep breath of air and blinked as she picked up a whiff of sulfur.

And then several clouds of smoke erupted in the field around her dojo. It came with a familiar flavor of energy and she reached out for her rugbeater as the smoke vanished to reveal a group of children surrounding what appeared to be teenagers in a huddle.

All of them had red marks on their faces and were filled with demonic energy, but most were only weak. Stepping forward into the middle of them, she held out her broom and built up a moderate battle aura.

"What are you doing here, Demons?" she demanded, finding the largest source of potential in what appeared to be a twelve year old girl whose left arm and leg were visibly withered. She winced about when all the younger children moved to hide behind the two teens.

"We're running away," the girl said irritably. "Because some upstarts do not realize what I am capable of."

She folded her arms and pouted with an arrogant expression.

"Make yourself plain," Natsume said, wary of some demonic trick.

Her last and only experience with a demon had been the reason for why she was stuck with a prosthetic. Of course, that had been a rather mindless monster, not a bunch of children.

Then another several bursts of smoke appeared around around her. More children and teenagers. Some of these injured.

"Hel-chan said, we're running away. We were sent here," the other teen who'd arrived first said quickly. "There's a battle and they wanted the children out of the way. Mara said that no one would look for us here."

More smoke bursts, more children and all of them radiating demonic energy.

"Who's Mara?" Natsume asked.

"Mara, 1st class Demon of Smoke," the girl said. "An upstart less than five thousand years old who does not respect her elders."

The older appearing teen glanced at her and then back to Natsume.

"She's better when you get to know her," he said. "Well...tolerable at least."

Natsume watched around her, straightening and narrowing her eyes as even more demons appeared. She was a bit uncertain how to handle this, on the one hand, the children had outright admitted they were demons, but none of them seemed to be very hostile. In fact, most of what she was sensing was fear and confusion.

And that included the spoiled, crippled girl.

She didn't relax her watch, but she did set her rugbeater down. None of these demons had enough power to really match her if she got serious. The danger of harming innocent children outweighed the danger of an attack.

The arrivals kept coming, and they were starting to move past her parcel of land. If this kept coming, they'd double the population of the village within an hour.

"So, why would Mara send us here?" the taller teen said

"Possibly because of what happened the last time I met a demon," Natsume noted coolly.

She shook her head and noted that the next batch of arrivals seemed to include a few adults.

"This is going to be interesting," she muttered before turning to the children. "Watch what you do."

* * *

Mara arrived at her chosen evacuation point last of all the people she had supervised. As soon as she arrived, she turned to the Rakshasha.

"Avoid antagonizing the people," she said deadly. "I'm going to go to look around see what we have."

"Y..yes," the warrior said. "What's going to happen from here?"

"We try to contact anybody else that escaped," Mara said. "And we regroup. Right now, make sure everybody is fine, talk to see about getting us settled somewhere. Maybe make some shelters."

"And the rules of secrecy?" the warrior asked.

"Have just gotten blown out the water," Mara said.

The warrior nodded and moved to start obeying orders as Mara strode off, shoulders straight, into the dark of the night until she found a fence behind a building.

Mara leaned forward on the fence, feeling drained and dead. She'd suffered such despair before, but recently only from personal failures.

This was an attack on her home and her people, and the despair felt both deeper and yet she didn't feel the same lack of motivation to do anything. Instead, there was a burning desire to fight back.

She hadn't felt like this since the old wars, when she was a peon scout or spy.

"Excuse me," a voice said. "Are you Mara?"

"What do you need?" she asked turning around.

Her face turned right into the fist that was launched her way and knocked her to the floor.

"What fool sends children into potential harm?" Natsume asked coolly as she flexed her metallic fingers.

"I had a run in with your sister a few weeks back," Mara said. "So I looked both of you up. You're much less hot-headed than she is. Now, if I'd sent the civilians first, I don't doubt that you would have killed them at first sight, but children, you'd at least think it through first. And I needed something that absolutely was not being watched."

"And why all this anyway?" Natsume asked. "One of the children said something about a battle."

"There's been a coup," Mara said. "Nifelheim...Hell to you, has fallen."

"I'm all tears," Natsume said coldly.

"You should be," Mara said seriously. "They'll be coming to Earth next."

Natsume frowned and then looked out past the building toward the growing crowds.

"By the way, my sister will be visiting starting tomorrow," she said.

Mara winced without looking towards the woman, who quietly turned and walked away.

"We have a tech who can fix your prosthetic," Mara noted. "If you want that taken care of."

* * *

Natsume stood silently a moment before continuing to walk away.

"We're getting reports of thousands upon thousands of people appearing out of nowhere," Kalinin said. "Descriptions match Gods and Demons, we're assuming they're also probably appearing in places outside of normal observation."

"We know that Nifelheim was made to hold around a quarter of million people and they reportedly had overpopulation issues," Mardukas noted. "But all we know about Asgard is that it is bigger and designed to actually be a habitation."

"Young Miss Satomi again?" Kalinin asked. "She's a major security leak for them. The fact that they allow her to know such things means they probably don't take us seriously as a threat."

"They might change soon," Tessa's voice came to them as she walked in. "I believe Miss Satomi, Miss Chidori and myself may have just made an impression. And I don't see it being overlooked just now."

She gave them a rundown on the "curse" or "virus" and her handling of it as well as her analysis of other people involved.

"We're seeing a pattern of refugees," she said. "That and the virus tells us that we're looking at a coup of some sort. Given what we know of the likely instigators, I doubt they'll be moving in secret much longer."

"We should contact Lord Mallory at once," Mardukas said. "We need to arrange some countermeasures and procedures across Mithril."

"And we need a representative," Kalinin said. "And it shouldn't be you Captain. But it should be someone who will make an impression."

"Agreed," Tessa said reluctantly. "I have at least a temporary solution in mind, if she is willing."

"Upgrading another Whispered?" Mardukas said. "I would like to point out that Sarah Miller's mental state is not stable enough to put her toward such a position."

"I agree, and I wasn't thinking of her," Tessa noted. "Ideally, I would speak to Kaname or Ranma Satomi, but I think we need someone right now."

"Ranma Satomi is not a Whispered, will the machine work on her?" Kalinin asked.

"It needs human base DNA," Tessa said. "I'm going to speak to our guests as well, but first..."

"Will Lord Mallory appreciate your initiative?" Kalinin asked.

"Let me worry about that," Tessa said, though the worry was apparent on her face.

* * *

"Do you have any idea what happened?" Ranma asked Naiki.

"No," her green-haired daughter said. "I got hit by that curse and then you and Tessa got me out of it and I woke up. I have no idea who sent the curse."

Akane's cell phone beeped and she picked it up as the conversation continued. Quickly she looked up and turned toward the others.

"We've got people just appearing out of nowhere all over the world," Akane said. "I'm getting called in to deal with a couple groups that have appeared in Japan, sounds a lot like refugee camps to me."

"Refugees from where?" Ryuu asked.

Ranma bit her lip as a suspicion came to her.

A burst of smoke then and a Demon in obvious fighting clothes appeared among them.

"Naiki Satomi, Demoness of Torrent, 3rd class," he said. "You're being asked to report to Mara as soon as possible."

"Uhh...what's up?" Naiki asked.

"Nifelheim has fallen," Ranma said simply. "Probably Asgard as well. War has started."

The Demon turned doubtfully toward the human woman and nodded.

"She also asks to speak to a human," the Demon said. "Your name came up, Ranma Satomi."

"Tessa is sending someone," Naiki interrupted. "As soon as she knows where."

"I'll still be going," Ranma said firmly. "As soon as we get these kids home."

"I hear you," the Demon said frowning. "Now, I have to go speak to the Temple of Fates."

"One of my other daughters is there," Ranma noted.

The Demon blinked before nodding and bursting into smoke.

"Ewww, that stinks," Izumi said from near her mother's side.

"I think it smells kind of good," Naiki protested.

Ranma had a serious look, neither frowning nor smiling, but contemplative. A flutter drew her attention upwards, and she saw a butterfly fluttering in towards her.

Reaching out,it landed into her hand before unfolded into a message. Pausing a moment, the red-head unrolled it and read the contents.

* * *

Deimosu sat and stared forward blankly, Yaku had even stopped her game-playing in concern. As Yonjuu sat across from him and stared.

"Well, how could you know?" she asked out of the blue.

"I should have looked closer," Deimosu said. "I knew there was something more going on but I ignored it."

"Sounds more like you looked for a way to do things that wasn't what she was telling you to do," Yonjuu said.

There was an expression change on the two's faces that Yaku noticed but couldn't attribute to anything.

"Of course it's not the same thing," Deimosu snapped.

"Oh and I suppose I can't be expected to know better!" the girl snapped.

"Are you guys skipping sentences?" Yaku asked.

Before either could answer, the sound of whispering voices arose out of thin air accompanying a brief aura of darkness.

Yonjuu and Deimosu stood up and backed away from the aura, growing outward into a circle until it dissipated, revealing a short red-headed woman dressed in black tactical fatigues.

"How did you find me?" Deimosu started to ask.

"That's your Mom?" Yonjuu snapped out before Deimosu could say anything.

Ranma walked forward and looked up toward the girl, a good three to five inches taller than herself. Then she looked toward Deimosu.

"You're hearing each other's thoughts?" she asked, cautiously.

"Yeah, they started skipping sentences!" Yaku supplied.

Ranma took a deep breath and grimaced irritably.

"You're in trouble," Ranma said darkly.

"I know," Deimosu said. "I made a....mistake."

"And we'll deal with that," Ranma said, unaware as of yet that Deimosu had triggered the entire situation that was causing the problem right now. "After we fix the first problem."

Yaku gasped then.

"Resonance!" she said. "They need to go so the other girl."

"Come on," Ranma said, momentarily ignoring Yaku. "It took me an hour to make that gate circle, let's get started."

"Actually, it won't take that long from her,e" Deimosu noted.

* * *

Mara waited in the inn, some distance from where her refugees had camped. It was more than half a day from when she'd sent out requests to talk to her, and so far, only Naiki, Eija and the Norns had shown up, along with Persephone.

When the Heaven gate opened up outside, she half expected it to be a group of Hecate's followers, instead, she found Ranma walking in with her son and two girls that Mara did not know.

"Before we get started," Ranma said walking into the room and looking out at all the people there.

She smiled encouragingly at her daughters along with Sousuke and Kaname and then looked back up to Mara.

"Deimosu and this girl are somehow having the same Resonance problem Eija and Naiki did with Tessa and Kaname," Ranma said. "We need to fix that before it's too late."

Mara and Belldandy exchanged a look as the sound of a helicopter announced the arrival of Tessa's delegation.

"We can't," Belldandy said sadly. "Asgard and Nifelheim are held against us, we can't get to the Throne or the Altar to do it."

Three people then walked into the room following that statement.

"Well, thankfully," the woman ahead of the group said. "We have our own answer now."

Ranma turned about to look toward Mao's voice and blinked in surprise as she felt the increase in chi the woman had gained since they'd seen each other a few days ago.

But the main surprise was more visible.

Mara slowly stood up, jaw dropped, as did those of her limited bodyguard. The several Goddesses in the room also exchanged surprised looks.

"Sergeant Major Melissa Mao," she said, saluting, which only served to highlight the green shield on her forehead and the daggers at the corner of her eyes. "Also, newly Whispered."


	28. Lull in the Storm

Leonard looked over the remains of the two captured machines with great interest. The casings were clearly not metallic, in fact, he found himself performing something more in the way of an autopsy than reverse engineering a machine.

The armor, internal structure, the lubricant; everything seemed to have an organic base. Biotechnology was a rather new field, even among Whispered, but there had been a few experiments.

This was far beyond that, however.

As far as he knew, there was no infrastructure to support such a design. What's more, it was clearly old, how old he could not guess without some reasonable baselines for the rate of wear and tear on the material. However, they had both suffered from internal failures before their destruction.

In addition, they were both obviously based on parallel developments. Two separate groups had created these items.

But what was most interesting of all was the lack of perceivable weapons save one: some strange version of a lambda driver. Neither of which would work with human physiology, nor would either work for the physiology of the other pilot.

Not just two organizations: two species.

Leonard suddenly wished that he had the body of the pilot available, but it had been disposed of by the soldiers. Given that Gauron was there and didn't consider the body important, that meant that the outward appearance at least was human in seeming.

Still, there was plenty here for him to make use of. A little bit of experimentation and he would be able to identify what a facility might need for production. And even before that, there were some interesting developments he could use to advance his own prototype.

He stood up and walked out of the lab, letting the thoughts come to him as he casually grabbed the remote and turned on his television. Usually, the news didn't tell him much that he didn't already know, but there were still a few gems here and there.

This was one of them.

"And we still have little to no information on where the people at these camps have come from," the newscaster said. "And we're still not certain of how many there are. Though perhaps we have some idea of why they are here."

The footage changed from the newscaster standing at a distance from a large camp of people in the middle of what looked to be the African Savannah. Instead it showed a mass of bodies scattered about a blasted landscape, though given the intact terrain in the background, Leonard suspected the North American continent, probably deep into the Canadian wilderness.

"Canadian officials responded to what they originally took to be a forest fire," the newscaster said. "And instead found the scene of what must be an appalling attack. Women, children and others slaughtered in uncounted number by unknown weapons. As of yet, however, the authorities have not gotten much cooperation from these new arrivals. While speculation runs wild ranging from alien invaders to lost secret civilizations and government plots."

Leonard thought about it carefully before moving to his phone and bringing it up.

"I need a mission," he said. "These refugees on the television. I would like to meet some."

* * *

"What the heck?" Keiichi asked, standing up. "What do green marks mean?"

"It means they've caught up," Urd said, looking toward Keiichi. "Looks like humans are joining the ranks of the immortals on more than just an occasional occurrence."

The elder Goddess looked between the blushing faces of Belldandy and Keiichi as they thought about what that might mean.

As Mao moved, Eija thought she noticed something in Mao's aura. The blood filled her eyes, showing her the blood marks on all the people in the room.

Practically everyone in the room save Belldandy, Kaname and Skuld seemed marked to one degree or another. Though, for the most part, blood was only on the surface, not threaded throughout like it was someone who enjoyed killing.

Deimosu had a lot more blood on his hands than when last she'd seen him, which made her more than a bit nervous. And what was worse, the blood had started to work in past his skin.

It took her a moment to focus past that mass of violent history to check what she wanted to check.

She expected it from Mara and her Demons, as well as Naiki, herself and the Gods. But she hadn't expected to see it in Sergeant Major Mao.

Usually, she could see death hanging over most people, usually very distant, but that presence wasn't hanging over Mao any longer at all. It would only come back if the Sergeant was struck with illness or injury.

"Miss Satomi," Mao said. "I've got two choppers outside. If I were you, I'd take these kids on one right now."

"If you tell us where you need to go," Persephone said. "We can take you there instantly."

"I know you can," Mao said. "But there are some things we'd like to keep secret."

"I imagine so," Persephone said. "But this is a medical situation. If its what I think it is. Though I'm curious how that happened, is the girl Whispered?"

"I hear Whispers!" the little girl next to them said cheerfully.

"Eija can take them," Naiki said. "Tes...Captain Testarossa wouldn't mind that."

Mao looked toward the Demoness and arched an eyebrow.

"Well," Eija said, blushing. "I'd need some blood, and it might take a few trips."

"Would Captain Testarossa mind if Skuld helps?" Belldandy asked, looking worriedly at her sister.

"Why do I have to go?" Skuld asked.

"Because there are too many people for Eija to take at once," Persephone said. "I'm assuming you're taking the child and going yourself? Yes, Ranma?"

"That's right," Ranma said firmly.

Mao looked over toward Naiki, who nodded.

"Go ahead," Mao said.

"Fine," Ranma said. "We'll be back. Eija. Kid."

Eija stood up slowly and formally bowed before walking toward the door. Skuld got up a bit less decoratively.

"Kid?" she muttered. "Kid. I'm older than Mara. Did you hear what she called me?"

"Not right now you aren't," Urd said with a smirk."

Skuld folded her arms and hmphed as she walked out with the others.

Naiki waved toward Deimosu before glancing toward Mara, the expressionless young man nodded at her for a moment before being marched out with Yonjuu and Yaku.

"Sergeant Sagara," Mao said sharply. "Go with them, take Kaname with you. If that's all right with you, Kaname."

"In the last two weeks or so," Kaname said. "I've been shunted about all over the place, watched some of my friends get attacked by some sort of ghost, fought some sort of God-virus had Gods try to kill me and worried to death over one of my best friends and...uh...Sousuke...I guess one more trip to who knows where is fine."

"Righto, kid," Mao said, smirking. Turning back to Sousuke, she continued with a slightly more commanding tone. "Sagara, get to it."

"Yes, Ma'am," Sousuke said, snapping to attention and following Kaname as her eyes rolled.

As they left, Mara turned toward Naiki and pointed toward Mao.

"And how long have you known about this?" she asked.

"Since about just before you showed up talking about the Doublet System," Naiki said.

Mara rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Let's get on with this," Mara said, trying to recover her poise.

"You're the one to call us here," Urd noted. "We haven't seen anyone from Asgard...except those jokers that came to kill us."

Mara looked away from Urd then, pointedly.

"What's that look for?" Urd asked.

"Hild's dead," Mara said quietly.

The look on Urd's face froze solid and she blinked a couple of times while Belldandy gasped and wrapped her arms around her elder sister.

"What?" Urd asked quietly.

"Hild died," Mara said. "I felt it, saw it just before I told everybody to leave."

"Dead," Urd said disbelieving.

"Is there a relationship?" Mao asked, frowning.

"My mother," the Goddess of the Past said, standing up. "I have to go...do something.."

With that she gave a very controlled walk out of the room as people watched. Belldandy stood up as well, Keiichi with her.

"We'll be right back," Keiichi said hurriedly.

"My apologies," Belldandy added.

Mao nodded with a look of consolation and then turned to look at Persephone and Mara.

"Down to just us then," she said.

"And Captain Testarossa," Mara noted, looking toward Naiki, who whistled innocently.

"So what's the overall situation back home then?" Mao asked. "We've been watching the refugee situation. But we're not seeing a quarter of a million yet. And we're assuming some of these camps are of Gods."

Mara looked back at Naiki again as the population figure for Nifelheim was mentioned.

"I don't mind sharing information as long as you tell me what it is first," Mara noted firmly. "No, all of us didn't get out. There are probably still a lot of us in Nifelheim with the rebels. I had the largest group I know of, and I think we were ten thousand, somewhere close to that."

"Did you know that some of your refugee groups have been attacked?" Mao asked, something building in her. "They found one in Canada, very public. Thousands of bodies, they even killed the children!"

"That's not unexpected," Persephone said, drawing Mao's attention.

"You were expecting this?" Mao asked, shocked. "What's with you people?"

"Understand," Mara said. "Most of us are over two thousand years old, Hild remember...ed, what you call the KT event. There have been...two hundred Demons born in the past three hundred years."

"There are a lot more than two hundred children in that camp we flew over," Mao noted, doubtful.

"We can return to our childhoods," Persephone said. "Seal parts of memories so we can relive childhood, adapt to the changing world outside of Asgard and Nifelheim."

"So most of those children," Mao noted. "Are basically adults?"

"No," Persephone said. "They are essentially children. Experiencing things newly again for the first time, needing protection and guidance. We've found living too long without doing so has a...detrimental effect on at least humility, if not sanity."

"The enemy, the old ones," Mara said. "Don't approve. So, obviously..."

"Any child is most likely a believer in the wrong ideology," Mao noted sourly.

"You'll understand in time," Persephone said confidently to Mao, noting her marks. "After you have done the same once or twice."

"So the situation in Hell, excuse me, Nifelheim," Mao said, ignoring the comment. "Is that your enemy, and ours, is under control, and for Asgard...we know almost nothing."

"Except that both Nidhog and Yggdrasil are still down," Persephone noted.

"Nidhog will be up soon," Mara noted grimly. "But I doubt that'll help us. And they still had a handful of carapaces out when I left."

"That, I assume is the big dinosaur thing guarding your camp," Mao said.

Mara nodded.

"I'm sure Captain Testarossa will see to getting the refugee issue handled," Mao said. "But I have to tell you, thousands of bodies on the public scene, big differences between you and humans."

"Us and humans," Persephone corrected.

"Right," Mao said hesitantly, shuffling. "Us and humans."

"You are no longer human or even merely Whispered," Persephone said. "In the same way that I am not silthine or Sung as my great-grandparents were. We've made the next step. We'll see what name you are given in the future."

"What happened to your people," Naiki asked then, suddenly. When both Persephone and Mara turned to look at her "Umm, our people."

"The tanar species went extinct after a meteor smashed into the Earth," Mara said. "Not everybody could make the change to Demon, and they couldn't change themselves to survive the ash long enough to come to Nifelheim with them."

"As for us," Persephone said, politely not looking toward Mara. "It was war. The Demons came and found us picking through their ruins and...retaliated, I suppose. We were already close to evolving into Gods as it was, but what we picked up in resisting the attacks of the Demons helped us advance quicker. The military took over and we started the first war against the Demons. As Mara said, not everyone is fit for the change, some are not strong enough, or don't have quite the right DNA, or else they didn't really want it."

"And if you don't make the change, you die?" Mao asked.

"Of old age," Mara said.

"The disappointment can be lethal," Persephon noted. "For more than just the unfortunate. Eventually, there were the Demons, the Gods and the mortal silthine. Who did not trust us...either of us. It grew worse as time moved on."

She paused and Mara took over.

"We retreated again," Mara said. "Us to Nifelheim and them to Asgard. The silthine obliterated themselves in forcing both of us away. Those who remained gradually died off, and then your people showed up."

"Things are repeating," Persephone said. "You've reached the point of immortality. You've started giving that change to those who can make it. Time will only tell if this leads to the destruction of your former species as it led to the deaths of my ancestors."

"Just out of curiosity," Mao said. "We know the Demons are basically evolved dinosaurs, but what about the Gods?"

Mara glanced again at Naiki who tried to look elsewhere.

"Chatterbox," she said sharply. "I'm glad the only important things I've told you I wanted passed along."

"Hey..hey!" Naiki said, suddenly. "That's not fair Te...Captain Testarossa."

"We're from what your scientists call the order of Cetacea," Persephone noted.

"And that is?" Mao asked.

"Whales, I believe," Persephone said.

"Ahh," Mao said, resisting a deep abiding urge to call Mara and Persephone "Barney" and "Flipper". "Well, history lesson over, let's see about avoiding a repeat."

* * *

Nodoka watched the news curiously as the clock ticked behind her.

She had no particular opinion of these refugee groups, beyond some curiosity as to what had brought them and where they might have come from. The pictures from Canada horrified her, of course, especially as the camera panned past the disfigured bodies of young women and children.

"Anyone who would do such a thing deserves to be punished by the Gods," she muttered.

As she spoke, the clock hand behind her continued to click. Counting down to the end of the sixth day.

Nodoka lifted the cup of tea in her hand to her mouth when the last second passed.

She cried out in sudden pain as the tea cup full from her hand to the floor, sending tea flying out in all directions.

Nodoka stood up, clutching her fingers and staring at them to see what was wrong. As she did so, the pain, moved slowly down her hand, inflaming every part of her as it moved. Aghast, she moved quickly to find the restroom and some of the pain killers that would be there.

By the time she reached there, her right hand was completely crippled with the pain and opening the medicine bottle was more or less difficult.

Frustrated she threw the bottle to the ground, trying to smash it open.

And it was only one hand for the moment. One could only imagine how it would be when she reached the end of the sixth day after the pain had spread to the rest of her joints.

* * *

It was in a conference room, sealed off, that the travelers arrived out of the pools of their various liquids.

Eija, Kaname and Sousuke arose out of the small pool of medical blood that Tessa had made in a fair sized bin while Ranma, Yonjuu, Yaku and Deimosu from a bin of water a similar distance away.

Kaname rather quickly stepped aside, trying to avoid actually stepping in the blood that she'd just come out of. Stepping aside she almost tripping over the edge of the tub in her rush. Immediately, she looked around at the room they had come out in.

She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but this simple room seemed rather...mundane compared to what she expected from the headquarters of Sousuke's group. She'd expected wall to wall futuristic gizmos and floating computers screens formed by holographic technology with self-opening doors a la Star Trek.

"Is this it?" Skuld asked, glancing around. "It looks like a classroom in Nekomi Tech."

"Welcome," Tessa said with a broad smile, ignoring the fourteen year old Goddess. "I'm glad to see you."

Nobody was really surprised to see the green marks on her forehead.

"Tessa," Ranma said politely, her normal humor currently a bit suppressed by the circumstances. "You know what's going on?"

"Naiki did tell me," Tessa said. "We'll handle that first, since we don't have the benefit of distance and extra-dimensional barriers to slow things down."

Tessa turned toward Sousuke and started to speak.

"Sou..."

She stopped and looked around as Eija and Kaname narrowed their eyes cautiously at her and Mardukas grumbled under his closed mouth.

"Sergeant Sagara," Tessa corrected herself. "If you would please report to Lieutenant Commander Kalinin to be debriefed. He's in the intelligence room."

"Aye, Ma'am," Sousuke said with a crisp salute, but paused as he turned to look at Eija and Kaname.

"Commander," she said, noting the hesitance. "Can you give our other guests a tour while we handle this?"

"Of course, Captain," Commander Mardukas said. "This way, girls."

"Uh, sure," Kaname said, a bit nervous suddenly as she looked at the seemingly humorless man.

"I'm going with Big Brother," Yaku insisted stubbornly.

"But there's ice cream in the..." Tessa noted.

Skuld's eyebrows jumped.

"I'm going with Big Brother," Yaku repeated, "and Big Sister Baggage!"

"What?" Yonjuu snapped turning toward the girl.

"We'll take the girl with us," Tessa told Mardukas.

"Understood, Ma'am," the Commander said.

Eija walked over to her brother and hugged him quietly and gingerly.

"Get better," she whispered before joining the other group leaving toward.

Somehow he got the feeling she wasn't talking about this Resonance thing they were talking about.

"Let's go," Tessa said. "I don't know how quick this will happen with neither of you actually being Whispered, but I don't want to take chances."

All three of the visitors hesitated upon seeing what Tessa had led them to, past a couple of Mithril personnel who gave an impression of lounging in an out of the way part of the base.

Ranma and Deimosu recognized them as guards, rather than off-duty soldiers.

"Miss Satomi," one said, nodding toward her as she approached.

In the center of what had been an unused lab was what seemed to be a sensory deprivation tank. None of them had ever really connected such things as being a good thing. In fact, sensory deprivation tanks usually meant very bad things were going on or else were going to happen.

Tessa saw the tension and caution on all three's faces and moved ahead of them.

"I understand," Tessa noted. "Believe me I understand."

She gave the thing a brief look herself.

"If I could have found something else that worked as well," she said. "I would have. But with the materials we can manufacture, this is the best choice."

Yaku, meanwhile immediately started forward to start poking around the machine. Or she would have if Deimosu hadn't put a firm hand on her shoulder. Even so, her eyes still flitted around.

Ranma nodded and looked toward her son and the girl with him.

"So, we get in that?" Yonjuu asked.

"Correct," Tessa said. "It took myself about an hour, Sergeant Major Mao took about ninety minutes."

Yonjuu glanced toward Deimosu then.

"He's right, why do we have to do this again?" she asked.

"Mom wasn't that specific..." Deimosu noted.

"Well," Tessa noted. "Somehow you've resonated. Given the habits your family has of piggy-backing rides into the Whispers, I think I know how that happened. Anyway, right now, you're just hearing each other's thoughts. Next you'll be sharing those thoughts, then feelings and memories..."

"In other words," Deimosu said.

"What you said happens to my sisters," Yonjuu noted sourly. "And this will make it...not happen?"

"It'll make it impossible," Tessa said. "And likewise protect you from most accidental mutagenic processes."

"Has anybody else gone through it?" Ranma asked.

"Not yet," Tessa said. "So far most people don't even know it's here. It isn't like I've made a big show about it."

"What'll happen?" Yonjuu asked.

"Judging by what Mao said," Tessa noted. "The Whisper of Souls will first let you hear the Whispers for the first time. It'll probably be a bit overwhelming at first, then the filters and safeguards will start to come into place and it will fade out."

"What Mao says?" Ranma noted. "What about you?"

"I was already Whispered," the captain explained. "The Whispers were nothing new to me."

"Don't worry," Deimosu said toward Yonjuu. "I'll go first."

The girl nodded silently, though there looked to be an expectation of speech in her eyes.

"Then I'd suggest right now," Tessa insisted, moving quickly to the machine to open it up and prep it.

The tall, blonde Satomi stepped forward a bit nervously before squeezing himself into the container.

"Just relax," Tessa said encouragingly as she finished prepping Deimosu and moved to start the process.

The demi-god felt the fluid of the tube rise around him before the power came on and moved subtly throughout the wet surrounding and then into him.

As Tessa said, the first sensation came with the slow awareness of whispers in the back of his mind. Not those of Yonjuu, who'd he'd started to recognize, but rather a multitude of voices.

First they were indistinct mutterings, and he couldn't even distinguish words from them. But they slowly got louder, though remaining with the characteristic of whispers.

Eventually, he started hearing the words, though he only knew a few of them off the top of his head. And then he started to distinguish voices scattered amongst the Whispers, some he recognized.

Mostly, he recognized Kaname's voice as the Whispers became clearer and clearer.

Then it rushed forward in a flash and he had only the quickest of impressions of the hundreds of minds he felt touching the Whispers.

Heroes

Innocents

Monsters

The petty and the proud and all in between.

But all inventive.

All creative.

All curious and probing.

And then, it was fading. As if he'd been blinded by a sudden light and now was closing the curtains.

Then there was nothing as the power ceased and the fluid started to drain.

* * *

A fragment of something Godly, the match of the inert virus piece that Hecate had placed in each of the three children after their conception, broke off from Deimosu and searched for it's programmed target.

But such did not exist.

There were no matching preset viruses in the Whispers.

There was not even a core computer to handle many of the aspects of existence that the Gods and Demons took for granted, such as access to the powers of others within the network.

It wandered to the next element of the system, finding nothing, and repeated the process as well as its simple instructions could manage.

* * *

As Deimosu exited, the green marks at the corners of his eyes showed the success of the process. Two lightning bolt shapes at the corner of his eyes and a cracked and broken circle on his forehead.

The martial artist stumbled out of the machine and took a hefty breath as he straightened himself and moved to where Yonjuu stood up with her own deep intake of air.

"I...I felt that," Yonjuu said. "What was all that?"

"To quote one of our opposite number," Tessa said. "A look at the neighborhood. Unfortunately, we don't have the unity the Gods and Demons do."

"I....heard," Deimosu said hesitatingly. "That the Demons and Gods were at war with themselves."

"Yes, rather depressing realization, isn't it?" Tessa noted sadly.

Ranma watched her son, taking in the alterations to his aura. It was strong as always, but not really stronger. However it was far more stable than most people he'd seen, aside from the Demons and Gods she'd been seeing a lot recently.

However, in addition to increased stability, Deimosu now held the same sort of signature that Kaname, Tessa and the little girl had.

Namely, that of a Whispered. However, while Kaname and Yaku still had rather erratic versions of the aura, Tessa and Deimosu's auras were both tightly focused and controlled.

Obviously the effect that was designed to keep the negative effects of Resonance from occurring while keeping the positive effects.

"I'd suggest you to be next," Tessa said to Yonjuu. She then glanced toward Yaku. "Then I suppose you and Kaname."

She seemed a bit doubtful about that, at least when looking at Yaku, and Ranma could sympathize with the situation. An effect that might be harmless to an adult wasn't necessarily so to a child. On the other hand, there was Kodachi to consider and her attitude toward her children.

"If you wish," Tessa noted, turning toward Ranma. "I'm offering the invitation to you as well."

"I thought you might," she said.

"We need a permanent representative," Tessa said. "That might eventually be Kaname, but for the moment, I don't think so. And Mao is a good temporary solution, but, eventually, I think she'll rub someone raw."

"Where as I am the pinnacle of good behavior and manners," Ranma said sarcastically.

Tessa paused for a moment in thought and regarded some of what she'd heard from Ranma in the past, or heard about the martial artist.

* * *

"Lesbian. Go away."

* * *

"But here I am, first couple of days, and I have a blue-haired tomboy giving me headaches."

* * *

"You see, this is why you don't underestimate people. This kid holds himself well enough that he should be able last at least half a minute, but he assumed I was weak and opened himself right up."

* * *

"Tell her they're all grounded if they don't come back alive. That's it."

* * *

"Too weak to be Herb unless he's been sitting on his ass eating potato chips for sixteen years."

* * *

"Right hand, this is left hand, what are you doing over there?"

* * *

"First rule of being a sensei: Find reasons to make your daily chores training."

* * *

"Mystics are half-trained morons that put together incomplete theories out of anime and old myths."

* * *

"Really, just show me the uncut crystals before I really lose my patience and start demonstrating what's wrong instead of just telling you!"

* * *

"Naiki, Eija, we're going to my room. Everybody else, enjoy the food. This is my house. All smiting privileges are mine."

* * *

"Our fight was over a woman we both knew. So don't worry about any under-the-table footsy. I outgrew pretending to be attracted to men ages ago."

* * *

"Well, yes, but you've at least been dealing with this longer than Sergeant Major Mao has," Tessa noted.

Ranma leaned back on her heals.

There were several reasons why Ranma had denied the offer of God-hood before. Ranging from her dislike and denial of her own altered status to a lingering desire to stay under the radar a little while longer. It had been a complex range of things that all sparked a more or less negative opinion of the idea.

Most of those reasons had been rendered somewhat null and void by recent events. She sometimes wondered whether or not she hadn't passed the event horizon of normal mortality as it was, actually. The rather swift certainty that she'd had before didn't come this time.

In fact, one might say that a repeated denial was more a choice of cowardice or stupid pride than anything else.

"If you don't mind what you're getting," Ranma said with a shrug and a smirk.

* * *

Lord Mallory frowned as he looked over the information available to him. He had enough on his plate in dealing with Amalgam, much less something that was so world-spanning as this exodus of immortals. He'd already distributed some preliminary reports to the more important client countries, but that wouldn't have much information they could use yet.

He'd have to have a meeting of the leaders of Mithril fairly soon. Testarossa had insisted that they de-classify Psyche in response to recent events.

It was a common request for any one newly introduced. The difference being that Captain Testarossa's reasons were less about fairness or openness than they were about the logical pragmatism given the developing situation.

Beyond her technical and scientific skills, strategy and tactics were Captain Testarossa's primary specialties as a Whispered. If she said they needed to think about opening up Psyche, it had to be considered.

Especially since she was essentially on the front lines of this growing front. Unfortunately, she was also getting to be increasingly important in the struggle with Amalgam.

* * *

"Mr. President," a man in a general's uniform said. "You can't take this report seriously."

"When I took this job, General," the man said. "You were one of a group of experts to brief me on certain subjects. Mithril and its reliability seemed to be one of those subjects."

"Yes, but President Hayes," the man said. "Demons and gods? This is ridiculous."

"I believe there was also a charming young Major and a civilian cultural expert with the group who briefed me on the paranormal," Hayes said. "And something about the One Percent Threshold that mankind has been strolling towards, up until a few years ago, when we apparently started sprinting."

"Psychics and magicians are something a little easier to swallow than..." the general waved toward the TV.

"General Bauer," the president said. "I think we're past hard to swallow and on to being force fed. Find that civilian I mentioned before...I believe his name was Jackson. And see if he can get anywhere with these refugees. Oh, and perhaps we should locate the death squad that attacked the group in Canada while we're discussing this."

* * *

Kurumi gawked as she entered her sister's house and dojo.

She'd been come into the town carefully upon sensing the mass of demonic energies that surrounded it. There were also a significant number of godly energies as well, and some of mixed sort.

Strangely enough she found, not a series of invading warriors, but a mass of what looked to be demonic civilians surrounding the town. All the hotels seemed to be sold out and large numbers appeared to be camping around the small mountain town.

The rather strange mundaneness of the demons she was seeing continued her confusion and caution. She recalled the Satomi woman's comment about Demons and Gods being very old races and held off on unleashing the wrath of the just and slaughtering the lot of the weak demons she'd seen so far.

Lots and lots and lots of weak demons.

Then she reached her sister's house and dojo and had a something of a greater shock to see Natsume surrounded by children whom she sensed as Demons with an occasional God.

"And those are your chores," the woman said coolly before starting to walk away.

"Wait," one of the youngest said, raising a withered hand as far as she could. "You have not assigned me to a task."

"That's because I do not have a task for you," Natsume said.

"No one is doing the dishes yet," the girl protested.

"I am not having you do the dishes," Kurumi's sister said pointedly before starting to turn away again.

"I will not accept your condescending mortal pity," Hel was saying in what she probably thought was a suitably haughty statement, but came out more or less as a pout somewhere between cute and annoying.

Natsume sighed and turned to face her again.

"It isn't a matter of pity," Natsume explained coolly. "I have no desire some childish little girl wanting to prove herself cause more trouble."

"I am not going to stay in this domicile and simply be a here," the girl protested. "I'm Hel, the Demoness of Imprisonment and you can't stop me from doing the dishes if I want to."

With that, the girl limped resolutely off to the kitchen, presumably to do the dishes. As she did so, several other young demons, one seeming to be at least fifteen years old, stared at her in something akin to shock.

"How did you..." one noted. "She just chose..."

"On her own decision, she's doing...work," another added.

"Hel-chan doing manual labor?" was a third comment.

"Can I learn your secrets Tendo-Sensei?" another asked reverently.

Unable to resist the urge to scream out against the insanity for much longer, Kurumi stepped fully into the building.

"What's going on here?" she demanded.

Natsume turned toward her fiery sister, and longingly thought of the days when Kurumi was an incurably nice and friendly girl. Granted, she was still usually very friendly and cheerful, but she had developed an anger of late.

A deserved anger, but still something very much against what Natsume liked seeing in her.

"Refugees," Natsume explained shortly.

"They're Demons!" Kurumi protested.

"Children," Natsume noted, though with a begrudging tone.

"Actually, I'm..."

"Silence, please, Susano-O," Natsume snapped sharply. "You're still on thin ice."

"Yes, Ma'am," the boy said sharply, closing his mouth tightly.


	29. Appetites and Movements

The Mithril mess hall was sparsely populated at the moment, just a few men and women from tactical and research that called the base home. The presence of Commander Mardukas had marked out the group of three teenaged girls as something off the ordinary.

The tattoos on two of them also raised some eyes. Over the last two days, Captain Testarossa had been seen with similar marks. It was very strange for an officer to mark themselves so visibly, and the presence of similar marks on these two was a definite curiosity.

Especially when someone recognized Kaname and Eija from their rescue off the shores of North Korea.

However, there wasn't a strong urge to come close to the three due to one particular reason.

As Eija had come through the door, two soldiers backed away from her at a quick step. When the girl turned to look toward them and smiled in a friendly manner, the chill that went down their spines was something doubly shaming due both to the fact that there seemed to be no hostility in the girl and also due to their pride as soldiers.

The hidden hurt in the girl's eyes at their recoiling only made things worse.

_Ignore the idiots,_ Kaname told her. _They don't know anything._

_It's not their fault,_ Eija noted, though Kaname surely knew that already. _Though most of the time experienced soldiers don't have that much trouble with me._

"Excuse me," Mardukas said sharply as he noted the behavior of the two. "Don't stand there gawking at our guests like some sort of civilian watching a celebrity pass by. Show some manners."

The two snapped to attention and saluted at his words.

"Yes, sir," the two soldiers said before turning toward the girls.

"I'm sorry," one said. "I guess you surprised us."

"Don't worry about it," Eija said, blushing. "I'm always startling people."

"Oh quit playing around," Skuld said. "Somebody mentioned ice cream."

"Right," Eija noted. "I was hoping for some as well. There is truly little more satisfying than ice cream to reduce stress."

Kaname sighed and shook her head, she'd gone eating ice cream with Eija and Naiki before. She once had even sat down at an ice cream parlor with their mother. The family were monsters when it came to such sweets, devouring it with a sheer gusto that she almost took to be inhuman.

Though having stated that in Kyoko's hearing had quickly brought a comparison to Kaname's own runs for the bread lines at lunch.

"This'll be good," she said with a smirk.

"Pardon?" the commander said, looking toward Kaname.

_I don't eat that much,_ she protested, frowning and blushing slightly at Kaname's comment and thoughts.

_Say that again when we're leaving here,_ Kaname teased, a broadening smile on her face.

_What's wrong with liking ice cream?_ Eija continued, inclining her head.

_Nothing's wrong with liking ice cream,_ Kaname said, sticking out her tongue. _But boy do you ever like ice cream._

_My family has a high metabolism._ The pout on Eija's face was dreadfully clear.

Skuld, and practically everybody else, watched the play of expressions as they tried to follow the silent conversation.

"Is there something going on I should know about?" Mardukas asked.

"Creepy psychic twin conversation," Skuld said eerily.

"We're hardly twins," Eija noted.

"We aren't related or even LOOK like we're related," Kaname noted.

"Doesn't change the creepy psychic twin conversation," the young goddess said insistently. "Now, ice cream."

"Indeed," Mardukas said quickly trying to derail the rumors that would soon be building from this instance. "Let's see about that ice cream."

It was half an hour later and the mess hall was now much more populated, and there was little talk of telepathic conversations. Instead, there was a crowd of people staring at the empty cartons of ice cream that were packed around Eija and Skuld.

A pile that was still growing as time passed.

Skuld tended to just devour the ice cream as it was set in front of her, while Eija took her time to make rather elaborate sundaes with toppings and sauces. This meant that there were more cartons around Skuld while Eija had a small armory of ice-cream related condiments at her beck and call.

It was a truly impressive sight.

Even Kaname was staring with her mouth open at the actions of the two godesses, mostly because of the fact that Skuld seemed to be even worse than Eija about eating large amounts of sweets.

"You aren't related to them are you?" Kaname asked Skuld.

* * *

Nidhog coiled sluggishly in the sky above Nifelheim as Demons skirted about its massive form, moving from terminal to terminal where small teams of virus experts did their best to unravel the mess that the loyalist defenders had left the biological computer in.

However, the Demons that had sabotaged it had sabotaged it well, and had been very familiar with the pathways of Nidhog. Some few had escaped after finishing their work, but most had been taken when the stations about the great serpent had been overrun.

Not that that had helped much, they had mostly refused to aid the effort to undo the damage that they had done.

But that wasn't the only problem facing the Demons in restarting Nidhog.

"The Kindly Ones have ordered that..." a rebel Rakshasha was starting to say before he was backhanded and thrown back to the ground.

"The Kindly Ones aren't here are they?" the interrupting Demon snapped. "They're still somewhere on Earth from what you tell me, playing hide and seek games with the mortals down below."

The Demon flinched briefly and reached up to cover the patch that covered a burned out eye. But slowly he recovered himself and firmed his shoulders, cursing Hild for destroying his greatest weapon.

"I am here," he said sharply. "And I'm the only category one Demon that is here. So I am taking..."

"You're the only category one Demon here because you fled when the rest died fighting Hild," the Rakshasha snapped, he turned toward one of the techs. "Don't give him so much as a trainee's access, that's for the Furies."

"Without someone to serve as the focus," Balor noted. "We won't be able to reawaken Nidhog, and the Furies won't be able to get to us. If you insist on waiting for them, then we will be stuck here forever."

"Then we'll choose out of our own numbers," the Rakshasha snapped. "Not some crippled criminal who was only released as a distraction. Your eye is broken, you don't have any power to fear any longer."

A sneer came over the Demon warrior's face as he turned away from Balor, dismissing what he took to be a blustering broken creature. He was surprised, then, when he felt a hand press against his back moments before a burst of power ripped through the unnamed Demon's body.

He fell forward, face composed of a shocked expression as his life ended and Balor looked out over the people that had watched him.

"People forget that I had power before I imbued my eye," he said coolly to the techs. "Now, I will be the focus and we will get Nidhogg back online."

Across Nifelheim, other petty would-be leaders put forth their own claims. There would be a lot of time before one rose above the others enough that the complete awakening of Nidhog was possible. Not the least because the mass of rebels and criminals had the bulk of Nifelheim's population to keep an eye on.

They were mostly category threes, Demons who would have been uncertain which side to join had the coup been the clean and complete attack that had been intended. When the impure would have been killed by a virus that could have been blamed on the Gods.

Instead, it had been messy and bloody, and those that hadn't managed to evacuate lived in quiet contemplation of the fact that few of them were warriors as Demons measured such.

Little acts of sabotage and delay continued to plague those rebels, though those caught performing such found themselves treated harshly.

* * *

In Asgard, the rebels had nothing to do except monitor the remaining citizens. They had the benefit that far fewer of the Gods had been involved in war in the past, and were mostly of a non-violent and harmless sort.

Unfortunately, they didn't have the problem of divided leadership.

Zeus sat up on a throne he'd acquired from somewhere and leaned forward as he stared down at the rebel Einherjar, minor Gods all of them, but he could make do with that.

Yggdrasil was gone, but not destroyed, and soon it would be back, if he knew the techs at all. Once that happened, it would be possible to leave Asgard without being stuck outside of it.

In the meantime, he would enjoy his...vacation.

He smiled at the sound of music being played by some of the muses, his own daughters, who had remained behind and raised his mug towards the warriors that stood about in a way that made no doubt as to just what they would do if someone disturbed Zeus's revelries.

The God of the Sky turned toward Hera with a smirk.

"Just like the old times, isn't it, my lovely wife," he asked.

"Yes," Hera said dryly. "Isn't it just?"

She eyed the heavy chains holding her down to the throne at Zeus's side as her husband eyed the various Goddesses that had been stuck behind.

Unlike the Demons, the Gods weren't used to running campaigns of hidden sabotage and resistance. The many civilians, used to a long period of a safe and idyllic life were slow to resist.

Zeus was starting to push such thoughts into them however.

* * *

Peorth came down from the rooms of terminals at a much more sedate pace than she had been, until then, repairing the damage done to Yggdrasil. Slowly she came down to the ground floor and found the small group of Einherjar and Eyes of Ra that had been forced to the base of the tree for sanctuary.

"Kami-sama is dead," she said solemnly.

Heads hung low across the vast area as the various Gods and the few remaining Demons and half-Demons that hadn't been evacuated took in that news. The silence lasted for several minutes, but unfortunately, there was business to attend to, and most of those present had faced war before.

"I'm not going to reboot Yggdrasil," she said firmly. "Not until we've had time to heal and recover. Until we're ready to take back our home. I want the rebels boxed in where they are."

"Someone needs to go to Earth and tell the others what happened," Athena noted, standing up.

Peorth nodded.

"You won't be able to get back," she said. "Aside from Yggdrasil's defenses, we also seem to be...drifting, is the only word I can find for it. If you want back in, you'll have to wait until we let you in."

"I'll go," Morrigan said, sitting up. "Athena would be of more use here, and I'm mostly healed."

Peorth nodded and sadly looked up toward Kami-sama's office. If only there was time for a proper funeral, but that would be best saved for when everything was done and all of them could attend.

* * *

Poseidon reveled as he dived down deep into the waters of Earth yet again. He hadn't remained behind for Zeus's ploy to take over the Heavens and hadn't cared that, with Yggdrasil down, he wouldn't be able to get back in.

No, he wanted to remain on Earth for now and watch. Maybe test his most recent child more personally as she seemed bound and determined to do.

* * *

"I've gotten some contact with some of the other evacuation groups," Mara said. "All total, we have two carapaces, both somewhat damaged, and and maybe three hundred Rakshasha...those would be our soldiers."

She turned to look toward Persephone.

"And I've done a bit of your work too," she said. "We've had contact with four or five camps of Gods and other Asgardians. So far you don't even have a single mantle, but you do have somewhere around five hundred Einherjar. Of course, most of them are Demons or half Demons, so it's still mostly us supplying the warriors."

"And how many healers are 'you' supplying?" Persephone asked casually.

"Ladies," Mao snapped. "We're trying to get a set of what our resources are, and what the enemy has, not flex our muscles or one-up each other. Let's focus. So again, what's the odds?"

"Three hundred Rakshasha, five hundred Einherjar, two carapaces," Persephone said. "Against perhaps, ten thousand rebel demons?"

Mara nodded.

"With at least five carapaces," Mara added. "And no word from Asgard yet. What do you have?"

"I'd have to have numbers from the other fleet headquarters to be sure," Mao said. "But I think we can more than double your numbers. The question being if our equipment can match yours. Any chance we can look at one of your machines."

"As I said, they're both damaged," Mara said. "Maybe you can help with that? By the way, you defeated a kill squad at the Temple of the Fates...where are the prisoners?"

"I believe Sergeant Sagara's people took them off our hands," Persephone noted.

* * *

"You cannot keep me here forever, dhamphyl," Tzelanit said confidently as Harker entered the prison room again.

The young demon's confidence had been growing by the day. And he'd been getting a lot more belligerent. The vampire-descended man turned to look at him before eight Gods were marched into the dungeon rooms much to the Demon's surprise.

"I have some bad news for you, Tzelanit," Harker said solemnly as the Gods were secured in their own prison circles.

_Leonard_ a voice said to Tessa's twin. _I will need your help soon._

Leonard sat up as he felt Sofia's presence Resonating with his.

_They've found a way to keep me out of Kaname's mind,_ she said. _If you do not act soon, our plans will be ruined._

_A way to prevent Resonance?_ he mused. _How interesting. I'll step up the plans then._

_I will need you in the Whispers soon,_ Sofia noted.

_And why is that?_ the sinister Whispered asked.

_Because you are not dead,_ the disembodied Whispered soul noted.

* * *

Kodachi frowned, almost uniformly across several bodies. Something strange had happened the last time she'd induced a Whispered state. Something that could be dangerous to her.

For a brief moment, she felt a connection to one of her daughters and then that connection was...not cut off, but a wall was placed and it was if she only had a window to look through at the girl's body.

A body that should rightfully have been hers.

Someone was taking her property and rendering it useless. This had to be answered.

_Lady Kuno,_ a familiar boy's voice noted.

_Ahhh, Testarossa,_ she said with a smirk. _Do you require another delivery of medicines and machines?_

_Not at the moment,_ Leonard noted. _We have a mutual problem._

_Indeed,_ Kodachi said, resisting the urge to push her mind forward and attempt to devour Leonard's.

However, Testarossa was a full Whispered, not merely a telepath or psychic, and Kodachi wasn't willing to risk that battle until she'd tested the results on Yaku.

Unfortunately, she wasn't familiar enough with Yaku to Resonate with her across distances.

And that fact became troublesome as Leonard Testarossa explained their mutual problem.

* * *

"Wow," Kyoko said as she watched the news. "They've all got marks like Naiki and Eija. What was it her Grandmother, the nice one said? They're a family trait?"

Shinji nodded at that.

"That's a large family," Mizuki noted with a whistle. "I wonder what happened after we got dropped off. That whole magic circle thing was pretty...weird, wasn't it? I didn't know Naiki's and Eija's mom was into that new age stuff."

"She's a feng shih," Shinji noted as if that was obvious.

The parachutes opened up in the night sky over Canada's wilds and drifted slowly down to Earth. Quietly, four men hit the ground carrying light armaments and each wearing an amulet formed of three oddly cut crystals. The central amulet of each seemed to glow with a weak white light that may have been a reaction to the chi of the team, or else was just reflected moonlight.

"This is Urzu-6," Kurz said quietly. "We're on the ground, proceeding with the mission."

"Roger that, Urzu-6," the radio said quietly. "Radio silence from here on out except at pre-arranged times. Do not engage, repeat, do not engage. Locate and report only. Also, be advised that the US is dispatching a Socrates Group unit to the air, rendezvous information to follow."

"Roger on the Dover Convention," Kurz said. "See you when we see you."

He turned toward the other Mithril operatives and silently waved his hand for them to follow.

"Let's go," he said. "The killing ground should be a couple of hours south of here, we'll start the search there. Remember to watch those crystals, that's the best we got for sensors right now."

* * *

Gauron sat in his cabin on the freighter that had been converted to a troop transport. He was only a day out from his mission, a bit of gratuitous terrorism aimed at drawing out Mithril's West Pacific Fleet to come to the rescue.

He idly played with the compact disk in his hand, the one that held a great deal of information on a certain submarine.

His current mission was still priority, but he couldn't say he wasn't intrigued by this sudden appearance of so many people around the world, it sounded like chaos of just the right mix to amuse him.

* * *

Urd found a rock to sit and pulled her knees up into herself, uncertain of exactly how to feel about the news she had just received.

If...if Mara was right, then Hild was never going to be popping into her life again. She was never going to try to turn her sisters and friends to join Nifelheim. She was never going to harass Urd to call her "Mommy" ever again.

She was gone.

"Urd," Keiichi said, coming to her side. "I'm...I'm sorry."

Belldandy was there just as quickly as Keiichi was, coming close on Urd's other side and wrapping her arms tightly around the half-Demon's shoulder as Keiichi stood on the other side and let a hand rest on her shoulder.

"She was...the oldest," Urd said. "The oldest living mind in the world. Millions of years old. How can she just be gone...just like that?"

"I'm sure she didn't go easy," Keiichi said quietly.

"But she's still gone," Urd said harshly. "That wasn't supposed to happen. Not after the doublet system...and if she's dead...what...what about Father?"

"The doublet system is down," Belldandy said. "Despite...everything. There have been no doublet deaths according to Mara. Father...Father could still be alive."

And yet no message had been sent to them to reassure them.

Somehow neither felt that Kami-sama had escaped the carnage any better than Hild had.

"It's all starting again," Urd said quietly. "All starting again."

"This isn't the same," Belldandy said. "It's only a small number of people...peace will come back. That was the way our two peoples were heading already. Everything will come out for the best, you'll see."

Urd sighed and took a breath.

"Did you know I was the first Demon-God born, Belldandy?" Urd asked.

Belldandy blinked and pulled back a moment in surprise.

"I...I hadn't realized you were that old," she said, surprised.

"I've seen almost thirty thousand years of war between Demons and Gods," Urd said quietly. "And only three thousand of this truce. And...if humans are becoming like us...how much bloodier will it get?"

"Maybe this time it'll be different," Keiichi suggested.

"The last time an immortal race evolved," Urd said. "A million years ago, war destroyed civilization so thoroughly that there are hardly any signs of it today. Some millions before that, an asteroid destroyed the last civilization to evolve to our point. It's almost like someone decides to preserve a handful of us and wipe the board to see what he can make next."

"I don't think the Creator could be so cruel," Belldandy said warmly and comfortingly. "And we have people like you, who are tired of war, and Persephone. Mara's a friend too. This will come out for the best this time."

"Yeah," Keiichi said. "No one wants everything to die. We'll make sure it won't."

* * *

Deimosu and the two girls with him were being directed toward the mess hall, where Eija had likely eaten much of the base's ice cream by now. That left Ranma alone, for the moment, with Tessa and the machine.

"Eija tells me that death isn't waiting for you anymore," Ranma said.

"Really?" Tessa said. "I'd only theorized that would happen. Though, I have to admit that the Demons and Gods made it seem likely."

Ranma arched an eyebrow and looked toward the girl.

"It wasn't on purpose?" Ranma asked. "Lots of people would like to be immortal."

"No, the main purpose was protecting our individuality while giving us a constant presence in the Whispers," Tessa said.

"Where does the immortality figure into that?" Ranma asked.

"It has to do with the DNA code," Tessa said. "It's coded to prevent accidental mutation so that the protections on our minds never break down. As a side-effect, this also prevents the natural deterioration that results in aging. There's probably more to it, but that is what I could predict."

"Immortality as a side effect," Ranma said shaking his head. "Don't suppose it's very new. I'm aging slower all the time myself and I ain't looked for anything to do that."

"Well, the choice was never immortal or mortal," Tessa said. "But Zerg or Protoss."

"Eh? Excuse me?" Ranma asked.

"Races in a computer game," the Captain explained. "The Zerg are a true hive mind, one overwhelming consciousness with a multitude of bodies to control and each creature having the individuality of a finger. While the Protoss have a permanent psychic link that still maintains each individuals personality and uniqueness, and gives them the choice of leaving the network."

Tessa took a deep breath.

"Ever since I understood Resonance," Tessa said. "I thought that we would have to find a way to control it. No matter how disciplined we are, as a people, mistakes would be made. Eventually, we would become the hive mind."

"And then we reported about Kodachi," Ranma said. "And you knew it was already happening."

The lavender haired girl nodded.

"But it was your daughters that showed me first," Tessa said. "Because they showed me it didn't have to be just Whispered. All it takes is for some Whispered to devour a telepath and then the hive mind could start to infect humanity in general. Kodachi Kuno could do that if she stopped fixating on girls that look like her."

Ranma thought about that.

"And then the choice becomes controlling Resonance," Ranma said. "Or containing or destroying the Whispered."

"Or letting humanity become the Zerg," Tessa said.

"Yeah, really not a gamer," Ranma reminded her. "So let's drop that comparison. How about the Borg...Star Trek is a good show."

Tessa smiled at the older woman.

"If you insist, Miss Satomi," she said. "Now, let's try this."

Ranma nodded and took a breath before walking up to the machine as Tessa prepped it.

The red-headed woman had never been in a sensory deprivation tube herself, just seen some of the people that came out of them all messed up. She really didn't like the feeling of being closed in.

Not at all.

If she were still in her twenties, she'd have had a struggle on her hands to avoid ripping herself out of the tube as it filled with fluid. As it was, it was still extremely uncomfortable, but she controlled herself easily enough.

Unlike Deimosu, she couldn't directly sense the pulses of electricity through her body, but she could feel the minute twinges of nerves here and there due to her own incredible understanding and control over her own body.

However, after several minutes, measured by the controlled beats of her heart, she felt little more than that tingling sensation.

It had taken much less time for the machine to start working on her son and the two girls. At least judging by the fluctuations of their auras and the looks on the faces of the two linked individuals.

It was after twenty minutes that machine was shut down and the tank drained, and then Ranma was taking in Tessa's disappointed face.

"It doesn't seem to be engaging," the girl said in a confused manner. "Naiki relayed that these things don't work on everybody...but I thought..."

She paused a moment and craned her head, obviously talking to Naiki.

"No, Persephone and Mara both say that anybody like you should be compatible," Tessa noted. "It's the bulk of non-psionics that it mostly doesn't work on."

"Then there's something else going on here," Ranma said, as she shook off the fluid and stepped out of the tube.

"As in something put in place to keep you out of power," the Captain said with a frown. "You'll still be a good choice for representing us to the other immortals...but..."

Ranma nodded, knowing what Tessa was thinking. Hecate had messed with her more than she had at first thought. And that sent a renewed shiver of disgust and shame down the red-head's back.

There was no telling what the freak might have done to her. She had long ago had herself cleaned of any sort of power that might affect her mind or her soul, but apparently Hecate had worked a few more tricks on her body than she suspected.

"Looks like this isn't going to be as easy as just pushing a button then," Ranma said grimly.

A beeping sound went off and the Captain reached down to check her phone.

"We're being requested at a meeting," she said. "Come with me?"

"Of course," Ranma said.

The lavender haired Whispered and the red-headed woman left the machine behind.

A few minutes after they'd left, Yomiko Readman showed up in the empty room, looking around, curiously before stepping outside to look at the guards and their semi-faked card game.

"Wasn't Miss Satomi supposed to be here?" she asked.

"You just missed them," the guard responded.

"Did you happen to know where they were going?" she asked. "I'd like to meet my superior."

* * *

The holographic images around the round table held a number of grim expressions that Ranma noted as she sat beside Tessa. The holographic camera of her assigned chair was currently turned off, and it would stay that until the matter of Psyche was broached to the counsel.

"Gentleman," Lord Mallory said. "We have a situation occurring world-wide that needs to be dealt with. Before we can proceed with discussing that, however, it is time to brief you on Psyche Division."

"Indeed, the mystery division that's been so active these last few years is finally going to be revealed?" the leader of the Intelligence division asked. "I feel so privileged. Almost as if I had top level security clearance."

The sarcasm was noted but ignored.

"Mr. Zhuge," Lord Mallory said. "Miss Satomi? Mr. Harker."

The sound of a buzzing came on and Ranma realized that her image was turning visible to the others seated around the table, wherever in the world they might really be. Across from her, Zhuge Shen came into view, as did Quincey Harker.

"Now that we've seen some of the officers of this new division," the tactical leader said. "Perhaps we can hear what it focuses on."

"Psyche handles paranormal assets," Zhuge Shen explained to the surprised faces. "For the most part we investigate and recruit psychics for various tasks that are inappropriate for ordinary teams. As a cover, we act as a specialized employment office for mystics and the like, but most of those clients have nothing too special."

Zhuge gestured toward Harker and Ranma.

"Individuals such as Quincey Harker and Ranma Satomi," she said. "Are initiated deeper and eventually recruited to the organization on a permanent basis."

"You're psychic spies," someone noted. "And this has to do with our current situation how?"

"I think Miss Satomi has the greatest knowledge of the current situation," Zhuge said, looking toward her. "I'll let her speak."

"The 'situation'," she said, using finger quotes, "Is wrath of the Gods. Literally."

From there her report was a bit more serious.

"So these refugees are primarily civilians for these...Immortals," Intelligence said frowning. "I notice you've taken up tattoos, Captain Testarossa."

"And on that note," the lavender haired girl said. "I'd like to brief you on Project Ainur, if you're all right with that, Lord Mallory."

"Indeed," the man said. "I'm rather curious about the development myself."

Ranma rather silently noted that the captain mentioned nothing of the crystal she'd found in Deimosu's extradimensional hideaway. Apparently, Tessa wasn't above keeping some secrets.

* * *

Natsume's dojo was on the outer edge of the village, closer to the deeper parts of the mountains and forests, so it was the first place that noticed the unwanted visitors.

Hel was limping out to the well on the edge of the grounds, apparently Natsume Tendo was unimpressed by such things as running water or electricity and the dish water needed replacing.

The Demoness was old by some standards, ten or twenty thousand years old in total. Sometime after Demons and Gods had altered themselves to be physically similar to and genetically compatible with humanity...and inadvertently each other. Urd had been the first hybrid at thirty-thousand years or so, and then came Thor soon after.

Born in Asgard a daughter of one of the first demonic defectors. However, the Norse Gods of the time had not approved of her withered form and she and her father had both gone back to be amongst the other Demons of Nifelheim along with her Goddess stepmother.

There she hadn't been much respected either, a cripple amongst a people that thrived on physical prowess. Then her father, Loki, had been caught and imprisoned by Gods and Demons both after he'd arranged for Balder to die, and thus killed a Demon as well.

That left her stepmother, Sigyn, to take care of her. The Goddess had doted on Hel, admittedly, but it was still aggravating. Especially since the woman couldn't be around all the time, she had to go take care of Loki much of the time. They'd lost touch a few thousand years ago.

Much of the specifics of her history were still in the memories she'd sealed off when she'd gone back to being a child, but the effect of the memories on her personality was still there. She was still cynical and bitter despite not having a complete understanding of why. Not much of what she'd encountered this life had changed her mind.

At the well, she frowned down into the deep hole. Had Nidhog been up, and she was about four or five years older, she could have used a spell to pull up the bucket easily enough. However, Nidhog was down, which meant that it would take far too long to go searching for the right spell in the network and she didn't have one of those scrolls or tomes mortals used to set spells down for quick reference. In addition, there wouldn't be enough extra pishogue in the network to make spell use easy.

Her own innate powers weren't of much use here. She couldn't paralyze or wither the already dead and inanimate rope, and even if she could, it wouldn't bring the bucket up to her. And that just left using the damn rope.

She glanced over as she pulled the rope with her one good hand, trying not to spill too much water, and saw Natsume Tendo in a heated conversation with the woman who was apparently her sister.

Hel corrected herself. Natsume's conversation was far from heated, but her sister's was far from cool. Then Natsume turned to look in her, Hel's direction, doing a double take as her face turned hard.

Typical human response to a Demon, suspicion. Hel huffed irritably and turned to look back at the well in time to see a huge, somehow mutated wolf baring down on her no more than ten feet away.

Hel let the bucket's rope go and listened as it fell to the water in the bottom, reaching out her hand, she focused. The huge monstrous creature froze in mid-leap and crashed aside just over the well, tumbling downward into the hole, crashing painfully against the side.

However it was not alone and the next wolf's slavering jaws were snapping downward on the young Demoness when a woman's arm slipped into the path.

Fangs snapped down into the artificial arm underneath it, electrical sparks snapping up off the prosthetic. Strangely enough, that was what Hel focused on rather than how close she had come to being devoured.

"Natsume-san is a cripple?" she commented quietly as she stumbled back away from the fight.

With her good hand holding her rugbeater, Natsume's return attack blasted the wolf backwards into the pack of other monstrous creatures. She grimaced as she glanced at the wolf that was currently drowning in the well and the damage to her fake arm, but immediately turned back to the fight as Kurumi zoomed by, ribbon in hand to strike at the beasts invading the area.

Screams, shouts and sounds of fire and lightning elsewhere said that this assault was not just limited to the dojo.

"Kurumi," Natsume said. "Check the village."

"You've got one good arm, Natsume," Kurumi protested. "You need me h-"

"I can handle this," Natsume said icily as she idly unleashed a blast of wind that pushed the attacking wolves backward.

Hel's respect for the human went up tremendously.

"I'll go then," Kurumi said reluctantly.

Natsume's eyes turned toward Hel then.

"Back in the house and lock the doors," she ordered. "I don't want my well poisoned any further."

"Yes, Miss Tendo," Hel said quickly.

She started to turn about, but stopped as Natsume's damaged prosthetic was dropped in front of her.

"Take that with you," Natsume said as she casually swatted a wolf that came close.

It bent its head aside and then crumpled as the next blow broke its neck.

* * *

"What's that?" Mara demanded, as the sound of the disturbance came to the ears of the people in the inn.

The Demoness vanished in a puff of smoke as she went to investigate the source of the noise. The two bodyguards she had did likewise, leaving Naiki, Persephone and Mao to leave the inn by more traditional means.

"When is she going to teach me that?" Naiki muttered as she started leaping forward to see what was going on.

Mao wasn't going to be the first to reach what sounded like a battle of some sort going on, but, with a whistle to the two squads that had come with her on the helicopters, she was certainly bringing numbers with her.

"Take one of the birds up with a gunner," she called out to the pilot. "Let's get some air support."

"Yes, Ma'am," the pilot said calmly.

When she reached the first sound of trouble, she hesitated at what appeared to be a small dragon pouncing out towards fleeing people. That wasn't the only such creature in the area as monstrous birds dived at humans and Demons and Gods.

Most of the Demons were civilians according to Mara, but it was obvious that a lot of them knew something about fighting. There were several attacking the monsters in small ways as most of the humans and Demons fled the area. But as most of the Demons and handful of Gods were category three, they weren't much better than the average human, especially not after being cut off from Nidhog and Yggdrasil.

Mao caught a P90 from one of her squad and stepped forward past a man with a pitch fork working with a demon throwing fire. One long burst and she'd cleared the monsters immediately in front of the two figures without a glance back to them.

A gesture instructed her men to take defensive positions ahead of the civilians and start to push outward. Eyes glanced toward the sky as raucous and strange calls came out of the sky. Off to the side, she saw a pair of Rakshasha, she assumed, wielding swords and slashing through everything that came in their way.

She saw what looked to have been a mutated hawk or something similar swooping down on the pair and raised her weapon, unleashing a burst that brought the killer bird down to the ground in front of the two Demons, who glanced over at her in respect.

Elsewhere, she saw Naiki's vacuum sickles ripping over the enemy.

"Looks like everybody's in on this one," she noted with a smirk.


	30. Scouting and Skirmishes

Kurz and his team took position overlooking the clearing where the killing took place and scanned the surrounding area through a sniper scope. The rest of the rifle, which he wasn't supposed to be using this mission, was surreptitiously broken down and in his pack.

Just in case.

At the moment, he was holding base camp and waiting for the US team with one of his own while the other two ran a perimeter check for any tracks of lingering guards of the Canadian authorities.

"Not much longer, I hope," Kurz said quietly.

A flash of movement caught his attention and he focused across the bloody clearing to see one of the other pair of his team quietly and subtly waving back.

"Looks like we're clear of rangers or mounties," Sergeant Weber noted confidently.

"That's good to hear at least," the other mercenary said, shrugging.

The crystals on the left hand side of each of their amulets had started growing weakly red as they got close to the killing ground, with a trace of blue if you squinted enough in the crystal on the right. Though Kurz was noting more that the white crystal was getting brighter slowly.

Kurz was known for being a laid-back womanizer and somewhat undisciplined. It was a reputation that a lot of his former co-workers extended toward his work in the field, especially given his tendency to make quips.

The man behind the sniper was one such person, a member of the Primary Response Team temporarily attached to the Special Response Team sniper. The very fact that Kurz was leading the mission here gave him the impression that this entire situation was a nothing task. It also seemed to imply that Mithril was more than a little stretched out.

He was just thinking that there the SRT reputation was more than a little inflated when Kurz whipped around, drawing his pistol in a blur. The mercenary's hands shot up as he stared in shock. His face was slowly moving toward an affronted expression when Kurz spoke.

"Out of the way, Sanchez," he said, eyeing a figure moving in the vegetation behind his team member.

Then someone, a darker-skinned woman with long brunette hair, stepped out of the trees toward Weber's side, as he directed his submachine gun in that direction. He lacked a third limb, however, for the next individual to appear, a thin man with dark somewhat unkempt hair.

"Whoa there," the man said in a calming tone. "Let's just take a moment and breath here. We're the SG team. You're mithril?"

"Sergeant Weber," Kurz said suspiciously.

"Major Shepard," the other man said, lowering his own weapon and signaling for the other woman to do so as well before gesturing toward where the first sound that had alerted Weber originated from. "Quinn, get on out here."

Kurz slowly relaxed and stood up, holstering his pistol and keeping his P90 up and ready. He gave Sanchez a scathing look as he noticed the man still didn't seem to have caught up to the situation.

"Put your hands down," he said. "You're embarrassing us."

"I didn't mean to startle you there," Shepard said, turning a look toward another man to walked out.

This person was clearly a civilian despite his short hair and his competence at holding his weapon. For that matter so was the woman with the brown hair. The fourth person, however, was another clear military man wearing glasses and dressed in fatigues.

"P90s and pistols?" Kurz noted, taking in the equipment of the other team and raising his own for comparison.

"Well, it is recon," Shepard said. "So, that's Sgt. Siler. Teyla's our sensitive and Quinn's our bookworm. How are you fixed?"

"I've got two PRTs looking to transfer to SRT, and one psionic," Kurz said.

He raised the crystal amulet up and indicated the glow about the crystals. Taking it off for a moment, he gestured it towards Teyla and watched as the white glow got significantly brighter, moving past the point when it could have been merely an optical illusion. Then he pulled back the amulet and slipped it on.

The woman nodded and turned toward Shepard.

"The crystals appear to react to psionic energy," she said.

"That's very clever way to rig a substitute sensitive," the man named Quinn said.

"Well," Shepard said. "You said you had two more men, should we be expecting them to get the drop on us soon and go back to the whole heroic misunderstanding thing."

"I saw them a moment ago," Kurz said. "They should be back here soon. I sent them to look for tracks or signs. Unfortunately, our quarry teleports, so I'm not expecting much."

"That just makes things fun," Shepard said sarcastically. "We're told you had intel to pass on, care to share?"

"The theory is that this group tried to reach a set safehouse or safe region despite orders to avoid anything on their lists," Kurz said. "If that's true, we think there might be a facility in the area. We're looking to confirm that before the Ranger service here stumbles on it."

"Yeah," Shepard said. "I can just see the news story after that happens."

As they spoke, two more figures came to join the group, Kurz nodding to recognize their arrival and calm down the Americans.

"Shall we finish introductions then?" Teyla asked.

Kurz nodded as he pointed toward the other members of his team.

"You've met Sanchez, that's Mason," he came and finished off by pointing to the one female in his group. "And that's Ichi."

Nimu nodded to the other soldiers quietly and politely, especially as a frown started to come over the face of the two soldiers.

"You look familiar," Siler said.

"I have a large family," Nimu said simply.

"Let's just focus on the objectives," Weber said. "Did you find anything?"

"These crystals glowed a deeper red on the other side of the clearing," she said. "Maybe they came from that direction."

"I agree," Teyla noted with a nod. "I feel they came out from that direction as well."

"There are some hills in that direction," Quinn said. "They have the right make-up to produce a cave system."

"Let's get to it then," Shepard said.

As they walked along, Kurz dropped slowly back and gave Teyla a broad smile.

"So, how sensitive are you?" he asked.

She gave him a silent, long look, rolled her eyes with a small smile and looked ahead down the trail.

Nimu wished briefly that she had on of the Ni's with her. If she had her absolute choice, it would have been Yonjuu. She could have used the sensor's reports on scents and other assorted information in this. But Mithril was only willing to send her on this task.

Actually, if Captain Testarossa had had her way, Nimu's volunteering wouldn't have been accepted yet. The girl wanted all the daughters to have at least a few more months of training before going on real missions. Fortunately, Testarossa's superiors had insisted on accepting Nimu's offer, if only to have at least one psionic on hand to support the recon team.

The fact that Nimu's telekinetic ability wasn't the most useful for this task hadn't been addressed.

Now, they were coming up to the base of a tree-covered ring of rocky hills, and the crystals they were wearing were quite clearly reading the presence of what she had been told was Demonic energy.

"If I understand the way those things work," Shepard said. "That means our targets are in the area."

Kurz nodded quietly.

"How about your team take the south approach," Kurz said, "and mine will take the north."

"You're a sniper normally aren't you?" Shepard asked as he eyed the high ground Kurz was indicating. "Our orders are not to engage, yours?"

"Confirm and report," Kurz agreed.

"Let's get on with this," Sanchez muttered. "Then we can get to something a bit less fluffy and new-agey."

Several eyes turned to look at him and frowned.

"Better idea," Shepard said. "Quinn, Siler, and two of yours, hold base camp, the rest of us break up and return with what we find."

Weber thought about it and nodded, pointing toward the two PRTs he had under him and giving them that instruction.

"You remember that I'm telekinetic, not a sensitive," Nimu asked quietly.

"I do," Kurz agreed. "And I might need something small and distant moved."

"If you say so," Nimu noted.

* * *

"The glow is getting weaker," Nimu noted as they moved to the top of the rocks they'd been climbing for the last twenty minutes.

"That's funny," Kurz said. "It was getting stronger before. "When did it start dropping?"

"I'm not really sure," Nimu said. "It's not changing quickly, I'd say, maybe five minutes ago?"

"When we started around the overhang," Kurz noted with a nod. "Walk that way a bit, see what happens."

Nimu nodded and started to walk further over the top of the small rise, watching the crystals as the red glow in them ebbed and flowed. This was normally the time that she'd get Yonjuu to sniff around for her, but at the moment, Yonjuu was being briefed on the situation with the other girls.

She paused as the crystal grew brighter and then dimmer again, backing up and shifting position until she was at the point of its brightest glow.

"I think we've found the narrowest patch," Nimu said, looking down at her feet. "But I'm not sure this is an entrance."

Kurz stepped forward to look around at the section of rock the Ichi was standing on and frowned as he started brushing away dirt to reveal distinctive gashes in the stone underneath.

"I don't know about you," Kurz said as he finished brushing aside a large section, "but this looks like a ritual circle to me."

"And you would know such things how?" Nimu asked.

"I watch movies," Kurz said defensively as he started to unpack his rifle.

* * *

"Did Sergeant Weber say how he would contact us if he found anything?" Teyla asked as she and Major Shepard moved along.

"Not really," came the answer. "He simply said that we'd 'know his signal' when it came."

"I do not believe that his psionic is telepathic," Teyla noted. "She likely does not have the ability to proj..."

About ten feet over their heads, something slammed small into a tree with explosive force, digging a path straight into the thick bark just as another impact followed it.

Shepard and Teyla looked up toward the where the bullets had struck the tree and then towards each other. Major Shepard sighed heavily.

"Snipers," he said.

Teyla rolled her eyes and started to reach out to find either Nimu or Weber's minds.

* * *

"So, your unit is the Scooby gang then?" Sanchez asked Siler and Quinn.

"We focus primarily on cults and assorted monsters," Jonas Quinn answered. "And keep watch on a few of the hidden places."

"Hidden places like what?" Mason asked curiously.

"El Dorado, Shangri-la, Lemuria," Quinn noted with a shrug.

"Next you'll be telling me you found the lost city of Atlantis," Sanchez said with a snicker, not noting the looks on the faces of the Socrates Group personnel before he turned away from them. "What I've always wondered is, if these places exist, why hasn't anybody found them?"

"That would be why they call them the 'Hidden Places', soldier," Siler noted dryly.

"Yeah, we've always wondered how they got where they are, outside normal space," Quinn noted. "If these are really the Gods and Demons, that would explain a lot."

He would have said more if Siler hadn't raised a hand for silence and Mason hadn't shifted his weapon to his shoulders.

"What's up?" Sanchez asked as the other three started to take defensive positions.

Smoke erupted in the center of their camp as two reptilian beings appeared flanking a third more human figure who drew out a wicked looking scimitar and slashed outward.

Sanchez stumbled backward under the blow eyes wide as he frantically lifted his security weapon and depressed the trigger. The spray of bullets stripped out as the man with the scimitar grimaced and deflected the majority of the bullets with impossible fast sword work. Some still brushed past the defense scoring small lines across the skin of demon.

The other two demons smiled with wide fang-filled grins in their heritage form with one of them reached out to fire a barrage of black lightning over the small camp, catching Mason as the other man fired. Bullets tore into the demon's shoulder as the Mithril soldier shuddered briefly before the lightning cut off.

The other demon took a more direct and physical route as he charged at Siler, flashing past the man and slashing out with talons at his back. Siler rolled forward and came up firing his P90 as the demon dashed aside of the spray.

Quinn, currently without an opponent, scanned about from under cover looking left and right with his P90 on single shot and trying to find someone to help. Seeing Sanchez, he fired off a couple of times at the back of the demon who was still attempting to skewer the man.

At least one of the bullets struck before Quinn was bowled aside by the speedy demon from before, flying across the scene and slamming hard into a tree.

The demon took a moment to gloat over his success before the burst of bullets slammed into him from behind and he dropped in a bleeding lump.

The scimitar bearing demon, slashed through Sanchez's gun, and then turned briefly to glance at who had struck him. He barely seemed aware as Sanchez stood up and drew a knife, thrusting outward at the apparently distracted and definitely wounded demon. However, the scimitar user dodged easily aside and slashed his weapon up, drawing a thin line across Sanchez's abdomen before swinging back down and slamming the hilt down on the soldier's skull.

Which was when Siler slammed his weapon into the back of the Demon's head, sending the apparent guard toppling to the ground.

Siler stood up and took in the post-skirmish sounds, waiting for another Demon to pop out of nowhere. The fast Demon he'd killed was slowly shifting into a more human form, as was the lightning thrower whose shoulder was a mess, though she and the scimitar-wielder seemed to be alive.

"Siler, this is Shepard," the radio crackled. "What's going on down there?"

"This is Quinn, I think we had a patrol stumble on us," Quinn answered, reaching the radio first. "The Mithril people are down and injured, I think I may twisted a knee and bruised a few ribs."

"Ah hell, I don't even want to ask about what happened to Siler," Shepard said.

"Sgt Siler is fine, Major Shepard," Jonas answered. "He came out of it untouched."

There was a brief silence.

"Are you sure?" Shepard asked.

"Tell him that I'm as surprised by it as he is," Siler noted.

"In the meantime," Kurz's voice came over the line. "It's a sure bet that that patrol got a message off before trying to take you in. I'd suggest you patch up whoever needs patching up and get a move on."

"That's a sound plan," Shepard said. "Get to a new location and book it for the rendezvous, we're going to try to collect a bit more intel and then we'll join ya."

* * *

Mao grimaced as she ducked around behind a corner and a wolf-like thing leaped past her into the empty street ahead of her. She emptied the remains of her clip into the creature and reloaded as she stepped around the corner to see another monster pushing its way forward.

Out of another alley further along the street, two of her troopers dodged out, pursued by a small swarm of insects that glowed in the night like fireflies but looked more like wasps. Her eyes widened briefly, and she realized that she didn't have anything to handle insects.

Which was when a cloud of smoke whipped through the area, wrapping about the mutated insects and presenting itself as a sort of thick and insubstantial wall between the humans and the animals.

Glancing briefly over her shoulder, Mao looked to see the form of Mara reaching out toward them, looking grim as she stood beside Persephone.

"We need to get more organized," Mao called back. "There's a lot of more of these things than I expected."

As she spoke, the monster she'd noted earlier was trying to push through the thick smoke and choking as it did so. Mao took a moment to gather its position in the thickest part of the smoke, which seemed to be clumping around the creature, and then casually shot a few pistol rounds into its head.

"The entire forest will be cursed," Persephone noted. "There will be thousands of these monsters crafted out of the adult animals of the forest. It will take decades before it is safe for casual travel and more normal animals return to the area."

In the background, the sound of a helicopter gunship landing washed over the scene for the moment, the gunner stepping out quickly and moving up toward Mao.

"Sergeant Major," he said, snapping a brief salute. "These beasts seem to be falling back into the trees, but we've confirmed they're on all sides of this village."

Mao nodded, remembering that the village was in the middle of the hilly forest from what she'd seen on the pass over. She looked over to one of the buildings she'd just been taking refuge behind and proceeded to climb up to the top of the roof.

It was a much easier ascension than she'd expected as she ricocheted from one building's wall to the other until she was up top at a place where she could see the fighting going on.

Naiki was finishing off a fight with one of those dragon creatures along with two other Rakshasha. Unfortunately, the Demon AS had been hidden in the trees and was now swarming with these mutated animals and not in an easy place to reach.

Elsewhere, she could see a one-armed woman rather casually tossing about tornadoes and smashing monsters with her rugbeater. Another woman was elsewhere finishing off the stragglers of the small horde of creatures with a ribbon that seemed to be on fire.

Add to that the handful of Rakshasha and her own squad of troops, and she had a fairly good idea of what they had available. And it wasn't all that much.

"So, what would our Captain do in a situation like this?" she wondered.

* * *

"The primary benefits of Project Ainur is that a recipient Whispered doesn't have to worry about losing their individuality to Resonance ever again," Tessa explained. "The modifications basically act like a psychic filter, letting some information through, but keeping some out."

"You've given yourself a firewall," the Intelligence divisions director noted. "And does this now limit your ability to develop technologies."

Tessa smiled.

"Not at all," she said.

For a moment, she was distracted by a flitting awareness of what was happening where Naiki and Mao were. More specifically, she was finding herself idly taking in the tactical situation.

* * *

Coming back down from the building with a single leap, landing in a roll that she'd performed many times over, Mao moved over to join Mara and Persephone.

"Okay, I've got both helicopters, one's probably running low on fuel right now, and seven soldiers still fit for combat," Mao noted. "I think I saw five Demons in what I guess is a soldier's uniform."

"That's about what we have on hand," Mara noted.

"And Naiki along with two human martial artists I saw," Mao said.

"And approximately thirty thousand assorted Nidhog civilians and humans mixed," Persephone noted idly. "Most of whom are injured in minor to severe manners."

"These things seem to be showing some thought," Mao said.

"Yes," Persephone said. "I would assume that means that my daughter is present somewhere and observing."

Mao's eyes widened.

"Okay, so...Domains and Realms," she asked.

* * *

"Actually," Tessa said. "I've found it much easier to find the information I want when I want it without extraneous information. I suppose this limits the chances for a spontaneous realization, but it makes the ability more reliable."

"Can you give any specific example of how this would be an improvement," one of the skeptics asked.

"Imagine for a moment," Tessa noted. "A Whispered finding herself in a sort of tactical situation where an enemy is behaving uncharacteristically. If they wanted, they would be able to access my ability to analyze the tactics and strategies."

"So they would let you take over for a moment?" someone asked.

"Maybe in the past," Tessa said. "In this case it would be more like receiving an electronic report and being able to read it on the spot. What they would do with that information would be dependent on the character of the person involved. I tend to focus rather on avoidance of necessary conflict, for instance, and some people are a bit more...combative."

Ranma looked at her as she sensed something behind the woman's tone of voice. As if she weren't exactly speaking in hypotheticals.

* * *

Hecate smiled as she looked below at the mass of Demons, a pleasant bonus to this attack, and humans gather in the center of town, trying to consolidate their lines against her beasts. Just like she'd expect of the average group of fodder given a bit of breathing room.

There wouldn't be enough Rakshasha down their to really stand up to what she was bringing, and there would be even fewer humans capable of doing anything. The Demons wouldn't be able to escape with Nidhog down, being unable to return to Nifelheim and unable to bounce off the dimensional barriers to do a long distance teleport.

No they were stuck where they were.

The sheer numbers of Demons and traitor-Gods had to explain why the first wave was so unsuccessful at getting anything done. Still, this would be a massacre, perhaps she would even step down herself to engage in the slaughter first hand.

With a self-satisfied smirk on her face she gave the mental command to her beasts to charge forward and she stretched out her fingers, adjusting the grip on the artifact blade in her hand.

"There has to be another way," one of the villagers was saying.

"Yeah," Mao noted. "We can all get eaten by monsters. It's just stuff, you can get it back."

"We shall be on hand to help rebuild," Belldandy promised.

"Everybody keep their head down," Mao called out to the large crowd of civilians over a loudspeaker. "This is going to get dicey."

Mara glanced over toward Mao and smiled.

"I have to say," she said. "I like this plan."

"Of course you do," Kurumi noted irritably. "Things going boom is a Demon's stock in trade isn't it?"

"I think there are examples of that breed in all three species," Persephone noted.

Hecate was at the lead of the newest wave of monsters, several of her stolen relics equipped and ready for a fight that she was sure was beneath her notice.

She turned a corner and looked to see a horde of humans and Demons mixed together and staring fearfully at the monsters swarming in from all directions.

And then, in an instant, practically the entire group in front of her vanished in a massive cloud of smoke.

Hecate blinked in confusion and surprise as it seemed that every demon present teleported away from the town, taking the humans with them, despite her early assertion that they couldn't teleport far under current circumstances.

She barely had half a second to notice that a handful of individual who'd been around the edges remained behind when explosions started ripping through the town around her.

The first few were probably standard explosives, but then it went on like dominoes. She watched as a small plastic device nearby her erupted into fire and force, wrapping around her as she raised the sword in her hand to ward off the attack.

Even as the artifact pushed the mundane explosion around her however, she saw the force of the explosion bend downward into the ground, seeking out the gas mains which erupted into a tumultuous wall of fire that came in an overwhelming flow over her beasts.

The smoke and shrapnel flew and twisted in the air with lethal accuracy that she herself was hard pressed to push off and keep from inflicting some form of serious injury on her.

Meanwhile those animals that weren't being ripped to pieces by the shrapnel, burned by the fire, choked by smoke or otherwise torn apart, were finding themselves seized with sudden and crippling pain.

"Mother," she muttered with narrowed eyes as the display ended.

She watched as the cleared slightly, being held above for further use, and took in who was left facing her.

Five Demons and one traitor-God that she recognized as Nifelheim residents. Two of them were category two, but the rest were category three. She took a moment to consider their Realms and the God's Domain.

Traps. Ash. Imbalance. Illusion. Debris. And the God's Domain was Conflict.

And with them two other Demons she hadn't expected to see.

Mara, 1st Category Demoness of Smoke and Naiki Satomi, whose Realm she wasn't familiar with yet.

Then she noticed her mother, Queen of the Dead, the Iron Queen. Beside her was Urd, Goddess of Fate, 2nd Category only as a formality. She had the skill and power of a 1st Category, only her denial of the promotion kept the added benefits of a 1st Category out her hands.

Beside them were two powerful sources of human Chi, sisters by their auras. One of them a cripple.

Then there were seven humans led by an eighth that suddenly took in all her vision.

The human at the head of their little band had facial marks like those of the Gods and Demons, and yet she had no trace of either species's blood. The aura that she had showed that the marks were not faked.

Humans had discovered the next step.

As the small group moved in around her, she readied her sword and scanned about.

"Daughter," Persephone said. "I urge you to surrender and face judgment for what you've done."

"In case you haven't noticed, Mother," Hecate said. "I'm barely scratched by your little trap here. I'm wielding Durandal and wearing Anansi's cloak. These aren't the only relics I have on hand."

Her eyes drifted toward Mao as the soldier took up a position of cover supporting the martial artists and Demons moving to surround her.

"Yeah, that's right," Mao said. "Go ahead and stare Flipper."

"What did you just call me?" Hecate asked irritably.

"Flipper," Naiki said harshly. "And I'd rather you didn't surrender. That way I can take your head to my mother."

"Where'd you take the rest of the filth?" Hecate demanded, ignoring Naiki deliberately.

"They've been gone about thirty minutes," Urd said. "Seems like some of the humans found one of the hidden worlds."

Hecate's mouth twitched, she hadn't even considered a dimensional teleportation to somewhere other than the three main worlds.

"It is time to surrender," Persephone noted again.

Slowly she shook her head and smiled.

"I have more six hundred thousand years of experience as a warrior," she noted. "Einherjar, Angel of Wrath, Eye of Ra. I've been the foremost of all such things. And I have not allowed myself to die and be reborn more than once. What do you think you can take me with?"

She looked toward her mother and Urd.

"A bureaucrat and a slacker?" she asked before turning to Mara. "An incompetent Faustian who couldn't perform as a Shadow and five Rakshasha recruits?"

Then she looked toward Mao, Natsume and Kurumi.

"A freak upstart, a cripple and a mortal hero with a bevy of warriors?" she asked.

Then looked toward Naiki.

"And the worthless half-breed trash of a pathetic soul too weak to defend themselves?" she asked.

"Face it, you have nothing to truly threaten me with," Hecate sneered.

And that's when Naiki rushed in, breaking their formation to start the attack. Spinning as she came in, black lines trailed behind her as she called on the Yamasen to call forth crescent blades launching out ahead of her.

Hecate smirked as she slashed outward with the Harpe in her hand, the divinely sharp blade slicing through the pishogue vacuum blades so that they dissipated harmlessly. Naiki came in behind, a wavering black blade of energy in one hand as she tried to copy what she'd seen Ryuu using earlier.

The Harpe slashed out, destroying the fragile blade and just barely passing by Naiki as she ducked under the weapon last instant. That left her unbalanced and Hecate easily swiped her feet out from under her.

On her back, Naiki was already moving to return to her feet, until Hecate's foot slammed into her side. The Goddess's eyes were turned another way, however, as two demons came in on either side of her and she had to step away from Naiki to face this new attack.

There was a casualness about her still as the Goddess turned to unleash a blast of raw mana against the oncoming Demons, who only managed to survive as a row of trees erupted between her and her targets.

The smoke came down out of the sky moving to attempt to cling to the Goddess as Mara worked her own Realm. Ash was mixed in as one of the minor Rakshasha aided the Demoness in her attacks, but the ash and smoke seemed to peel off the cloak of the trickster spider that Hecate had stolen.

Before the Demons and other humans reached melee range, Mao and her soldiers fired a stream of automatic fire, hoping to catch the Goddess unprepared.

In a flash she stomped her feet down, raising a wall of pure black energy that blocked the bullets and sent them careening back into the crowds of warriors.

The sound of crackling above alerted Hecate to one of Urd's bolts striking downward and she stepped aside of it, holding out the Harpe sword to catch some of the energy and swirl it away from her towards a Demon and one Mao's soldiers.

It struck them both, sending them flying backward to lie still.

The wind started to pick up around the field and she glanced to see the human sisters performing some sort of combined chi attack. Frowning at the absurdity of even challenging her she lashed out with a blast of energy against the two sisters, only to find it blocked as Naiki entered the fight again and raise an shield of vacuum blades to cut through Hecate's attack.

Demons entered briefly into melee range around Hecate, each taking one strike and leaving the area around her as quickly as possibly in scattered directions. One didn't get out of reach fast enough and the Harpe neatly sliced through his neck to send his head rolling to the ground.

Then Natsume unleashed her attack down through the heated spiral of Kurumi's ribbon, it slammed into Naiki's back, but the Demoness merely let it pick her up and carry her forward, spinning as she did to add vacuum blades to the blast.

Automatic gunfire called some of her attention again, as did the various pishogue, mana and chi assaults that slammed down into her. When she turned around to face Naiki's launched approach, it was to find the shark-girl's feet inches from slamming into her face.

Contact was made and the Goddess rolled back, the Harpe flying out of her hand briefly before she lashed out and a thread from her cloak zipped out to grab the weapon. A red, flaming ribbon reached the sword that had beheaded Medusa first and whipped out and away from the battle.

Rolling back away, Hecate found her feet and lashed outward at the people around her, sending her power out in a rain of raw energy in hopes of catching many of her attackers.

Mao ducked just in time, but grimaced to see one of her squad's head evaporate from a strike.

Naiki and Natsume were then in Hecate's face. The human swinging out with her rugbeater and trying smash it into the Goddess's face.

Hecate merely smiled indulgently as she dodged the masterful attacks casually and idly shifted her wait to send Natsume flying out across the field. In almost the same motion she passed between all of Naiki's attacks and opened a blast of pure energy almost straight into the half-Demon's chest.

Naiki struggled up to her feet, a trickle of blood from her mouth as she clutched at her chest and looked toward where Hecate was driving the fight forward, following as Mao and the others fell back.

Kurumi and Natsume were back in the fight already as Naiki still struggled, the sister mistresses working in a even tandem that still failed to break the millenia old mastery of the woman they were fighting. Instead, their assault quickly became a mere attempt to survive and not be struck.

Still, they were doing better than Naiki had up to now.

The Satomi Demoness was about to go back into the battle when she noticed where the battle was moving just at that moment. They were almost in position, best to get ready.

Mao and her soldiers fell back evenly, securely as the two Tendos were thrown violently out of the battle with the Goddess, there extra decades of experiencing saving them the injuries that Naiki had suffered.

The smoke continued to swirl, stinging occasionally at Hecate's eyes as Mara supported the fight along with Persephone, who continued to raise barriers to stop her daughter's attacks.

With a smirk, Hecate glanced at the Demoness and Goddess as she continued to walk forward, throwing about the lesser attackers like rag dolls. With a casual gripping and pulling motion, a nimbus of energy appeared behind her mother and Mara slamming into their backs and smashing them down into the ground.

Gritting her teeth, Mara reached over toward Persephone and both vanished in a puff of sulfur smoke before Hecate's next attack could do more to them.

The Goddess continued to smirk as the two sisters fled away from her approach and the Demons and humans alike broke and ran full out away from her. Some part of her told her that this was too easy, that they were retreating with too much precision to truly be panicking, but it was blinded by her hubris.

She was dealing with humans and Demons for the most part, nothing more.

Mao lingered at the back of her retreating formation sending bursts of fire at Hecate as she moved from cover to cover. She kept the smile off her face as she looked to see her survivors getting into position.

Hecate stepped forward into a circle of debris, failing to notice the Tendos in the middle of another combined assault as Naiki took a deep breath and reached out toward the earth. The Goddess did start to notice the tremors around her feet, however, but deciding it was weak, she only turned about to give Naiki an arrogant glance rather than looking at the circle of eight claymores the girl was rising out of the earth around Hecate's feet.

"Here goes," Mao whispered as she ducked around a corner to reach out and arm the mines.

"Hecate! You'll pay for your crimes!" a voice called out.

A far too young voice that was not a part of Mao's plan. Glancing out, she had time to see a young Demon girl, looking about twelve years old. And she was reaching out with her hand arrogantly at Hecate, apparently inhibiting the Goddess's actions somehow judging by the way the woman was suddenly struggling to move.

They were both there, far too close to seven armed mines that would trigger with the first person to trip their sensors.

"Hel-chan," Natsume shouted out, moving out of position from her combination with Kurumi.

Kurumi herself looked up to see Natsume starting to pass around her.

Urd, who'd been preparing to drop a bolt of power out of the sky, let the power fizzle away with a curse as she saw the Demoness on the field where she shouldn't be.

Naiki let the earth go and was dancing into the Yamasen instead, moving carefully as she herself eyed the child on the field.

In the next second, an explosion ripped upward around Hecate as the Goddess stepped forward, knocking into one of the armed claymores. Six more explosions followed in a split motion afterward as a small body was thrown clear of the sudden burst of smoke.

The smoke collapsed inward at Mara's insistence to reveal Hecate sprawled out unconscious, blood trickling out from where something, most likely one of Naiki's vacuum blades, had severed her left leg at the knee but left it mostly cauterized. Besides that she was covered in bruises and cuts all over.

Mao was running out of cover, cursing up a storm as took in a visual measure of everyone's status. Naiki was collapsing down to her knees, obviously heavily injured despite managing to get her part done for the last attack. Natsume was untying her sister's ribbon from around her legs. Mara was sitting down and breathing deeply.

And then there was the body that had been thrown clear of the explosion, apparently at just the last moment as Hel was dizzily sitting up and appeared to have broken her crippled leg judging by how badly it was bending.

Which brought Mao to look at the other body at the center of the explosion.

Persephone was at the woman's side, and trying to heal the wounds she'd suffered. But it was a losing body. The martial artist's battle aura had prevented her from being obliterated, but her concentration had been split toward saving the girl on the field and keeping her sister out of harm.

The protection had been incomplete and there were too many injuries for Persephone to heal her quickly enough.

"Kurumi!" Natsume said, coming to her sister's side. "Why...for a Demon?"

"I didn't save the Demon-kid," the woman said hoarsely. "I saved you, big sis..."

And she didn't finish the word.

* * *

"Okay, we've got to be about this quick," Shepard said as he arrived and glanced at the circle uncovered by Nimu and Kurz. "Teyla?"

"It's a black magic ritual circle," Teyla noted calmly. "I'm copying it down to show Jonas once we rendez..."

They all paused as the circle began to glow, and scattered for cover. A moment later, figures starting coming into view around the circle. As the dust settled, two of the new arrivals, in somewhat more extravagant clothes started to take to the air.

And then one of them paused and held a hand out to the other and those on the ground.

"This doesn't look good," Shepard noted from his cover as he carefully clicked the safety off of his gun.

"Do you smell ozone?" Nimu asked cautiously.

"I do..." Kurz said.

Shimmering into view above the scene, three slender machines appeared above the group. Kurz cursed under his breath as he recognized the Shadow model that had recently been used to support Gauron in the last engagement that had involved the psychotic.

"Where did they come from?" Kurz wondered as the Arm Slaves attracted the Demons' attention.

Kurz grabbed Nimu and ran across the field. Seeing the German sniper pass them, Shepard looked across at Teyla and then joined them in the flight.

"I'm taking it that those aren't your people," Shepard asked as they left ahead of the start of the gunfire.

"Not at all," Kurz said, thanking the heavens, well...somebody anyway, that none of the models he'd seen were one of those armed with a lambda driver.

Lord Mallory looked away from the holographic display a moment before turning back to the board.

"The rest of this meeting shall have to take place another time," he said. "We just received word of terrorists taking hostages on one of the smaller Pacific Islands. Reports indicate it Gauron is leading the operation. Captain Testarossa, I think you should deploy immediately."

"I agree," she said. "In the meantime, you have my report."

She stood up and away from the table gesturing for Ranma to do the same.


	31. Unique and Belonging

Bullets struck into the stone and dirt, splintering trees and sending up fragments of rock and deformed metal as the demons scattered away from the heavy weapons. The two in charge formed their raw pishogue into a shield to deflect at least some of the fire, as they pushed in underneath to attack the Amalgam ASes directly.

The first dived in from the sky, weaving a circle around the incoming fire so that only an occasional bullet struck into his shield, deflecting off on a random course before he slammed into the mecha. Then the pishogue was focused more precisely into a burst of energy slipping through the machine.

The pilot inside cursed bitterly as his machines computers momentarily seized up. He was joined in frustration when the Demon attacking his machine slammed a momentarily clawed hand into armor and found himself unable to pierce completely through the armor of the shadow and he had to teleport away as the AS recovered its systems and swiped at the Demon.

The Demon appeared behind a tree and frowned as he compared that to what happened when a second category Demon or God came onto a Mantle or Carapace with a distracted pilot. Even without Nidhogg to enhance him, he should have been able to tear the machine open like a pillow.

Of course, by the time that the Carapaces and Mantles had been developed, it had been a long time since either Demons or Gods had invested much in heavy physical armor. Even the Amalgam shadows were heavily armored compared to that.

As the Demon of Disruption disengaged from the combat, one of the Amalgam AS pilots grumbled under his breath as he again tried to target one of the handful of small, fast moving targets. The ASes were armed with anti-personnel weaponry, but those were still designed for large groups of infantry rather than eight to ten people running around at speeds more appropriate to small motorized vehicles than human.

Kurz looked up from his sniper rifle and turned toward the other three people with him.

"It's a stalemate," he said.

"Think it will stay that way?" Shepard asked, bringing down his binoculars. "I'm seeing three more units of these unknown models heading into the area from the north."

"There's something else coming," Teyla said. "And they've cut us off from rendezvousing with the others."

"Our job here is to make to gather information, isn't it?" Nimu asked. "And as long as they're not aware of us, we're in the perfect place to gather information on both elements in this conflict."

Kurz glanced over at Nimu and considered what she said.

"How long have you been at this game?" Shepard asked.

"About seven years," Nimu noted.

"You would have to have been a child," Teyla noted.

"Yes, well, my family is interesting in addition to being large," Nimu said.

"Something's up down below," Kurz said.

Shepard turned his binoculars away from the oncoming reinforcements down towards the ritual circle they'd found earlier. The earth opened up below allowing a large dinosaur like machine to leap up out of the Earth, glowing bright red.

"What the hell is that?" Shepard asked.

"It's putting out a massive amount energy," Teyla said, pointing to the crystals they had and how they were glowing bright red even so far away as they were.

"What we have calls them 'Carapaces'," Kurz said. "Apparently some sort of demonic AS, our information says that they were supposed to be mothballed thousands of years ago when the Demons and Gods first called truce."

"That looks to be in prime working condition to me," Shepard noted as the machine tore easily through the shadows that were trying to surround it and then escape it.

"I'm going to try something here," Kurz noted in a warning tone.

"And what might that..."

The sniper rifle fired off shortly.

"What the hell are you doing, trying to give away our position?" Shepard asked.

"Just a second," Kurz said. "That one bounced off."

"And now that we've proven that the enemy armored vehicle is obviously bulletproof," Shepard noted. "What else do you think we can accomplish?"

"I once disabled a savage with a basic sniper rifle," Kurz noted. "This is top of the line, I could reliably snipe through a military issue humvee. Granted, that's not most ASes or tanks, but..."

At the site of the battle, the red dinosaur AS focused its aura toward blocking an incoming rocket. The rocket exploded well in front of the machine as a lash of red energy destroyed the last of the shadows.

And Kurz fired again.

This time the impact showed below as the Carapace shuddered and collapsed to the ground in an inert mass.

"How did you do that?" Shepard asked.

"Distraction," Teyla guessed. "The mindset of the pilot has been abnormally focused the entire time, I'm assuming there's something about the machine that is psionic in nature."

"And how did you know that would work?" Shepard asked.

"Because we've got our own version," Kurz said. "And recently been getting some training on how to face and counter the tech. The first rule seems to be distract or disrupt their attention."

"Why do you guys get the best toys first?" Shepard asked, irritably.

"Maybe because we build them and test them to make sure they don't explode in your faces in the field?" the sniper noted.

"While we discuss that, perhaps we should start getting out of here," Nimu suggested, walking to the sharper edge of the hill looking to scale down it.

"Yes, I agree," Teyla noted.

Kurz and Shepard looked as the two women started down the sheer side of the cliff as if there were nothing to it.

"Is there some rule that says that women in the field have to show us up at any given moment?" Shepard asked.

"What are you talking about?" Kurz asked as he moved toward the cliff and followed the two women.

Shepard rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Why do people always want to do things the hard way?" he asked as he followed behind.

* * *

Sitting at the side of her sister's still form, the characteristic stoic expression usually found on Natsume's face was understandably gone, replaced with one that was merely blank. It was a subtle distinction, and one that most in the world were not able to distinguish, preferring to paint both such expressions with the term "emotionless" and leaving it at that.

The warrior; God, Demon and human; around her understood and sympathized for the most part.

Hel sat at the edge, wanting to move closer to the human she'd only recently met, but afraid to do so, her own face clean of her supreme attitude to reveal the expression of a twelve year old child faced with unforeseen and unexplainable shame and tragedy.

"So, you're a Demon?" he asked. "How old are you?"

She didn't answer right away.

"Let me guess, two hundred years old," the man said.

She frowned in a huff and turned to face him.

"I'm fifteen thousand years old," she snapped, then softened slightly twiddling her fingers. "I just...don't remember all of it."

"Oh the thing about being reborn?" the soldier asked. "We heard the sergeant being told about that. So how old are you right now?"

"Twelve," Hel said after a moment's hesitation.

"Well, twelve year-olds are expected to make mistakes," the soldier noted.

She quietly wondered if that would make any sort of difference to her.

"So you live in Hell?" the soldier noted.

"No, I was just visiting when the attack happened, they were holding examinations..." Hel explained. "I live in New Jersey at some orphanage."

"Okay, so you live in Hell," the soldier confirmed.

Hel frowned and crossed her good arm over her chest in a huff as she narrowed her eyes.

The man's laugh did not improve her humor, but it did further distract the child from her situation.

Natsume glanced toward Hel momentarily, meeting the young Demoness eyes momentarily before the girl looked away, the shame clear on her face. Slowly, the martial artist walked over toward the collection of artifacts that the Demons had stripped off of Hecate.

Naiki leaning against a rock with her eyes closed as Persephone busily attended to healing her, with help from Urd's alchemical skills. Of the survivors, she was the most heavily injured, but the expressions on the two Goddesses' faces spoke of confidence that she would recover quickly enough.

Mara looked over toward the other dead as they were lined up, two Demons, the God that had served with the Rakshasha and three other humans. Given their opponent, it was a smaller list of casualties than she'd expected. Then again, between her, Urd and Persephone she thought they should have been able to do more.

"What does category 1 mean then?" she muttered to herself.

"Corporal," Mao said, looking up from a cell phone. "Start preparing the prisoner for transport, we're going to have to be moving out ASAP."

Mara looked up at that.

"With all due respect, Sergeant-Major," one of her soldiers said. "I'm not sure there's anyway to secure this prisoner. Shouldn't we just take care of her now."

"I agree with the human," one of the other demons said as Mao's medic attended to her minor injuries. "Let's kill her and be done with it."

Persephone looked up sharply, but seemed frozen on whether to say anything or not. The situation seemed to war within her between the fact that it was her daughter being discussed and the fact of her daughter's crimes.

"We can't just kill her," Mara said, drawing looks of surprise from those gathered. "We need things from her."

"Like what?" one of the Demons asked. "She's the cause for the deaths of countless beings. Evil like her is a waste of the Creator's resources, it should just be cleansed away."

Persephone winced at that and Urd reached out a steadying hand toward the older Goddess.

"We're going to need some information," Mao reminded the Demon. "Leaders, how many of these Mantle things the Gods have, what other magic weapons she snuck out with."

"That's obsolete information," a Demon noted. "Didn't one of you say her plan was already shot to hell? What could she have told us."

The a dull sound like that of a butcher's hatchet cleaving through thick flush came to the ears of those present and all eyes turned to see Natsume standing over Hecate's form, Durandal impaled down through the Goddess's unconscious chest and blood flowing freely out of the wound.

She looked around at all the faces turned toward her, challenging them to say anything before she removed the sword from the body and walked toward where Persephone stood, staring at her daughter's dying form as the human martial artist walked closer toward her in the silence.

"A life for a life," Natsume said coolly, handing the sword over toward Persephone hilt first, the blade pointed directly toward her own heart.

Persephone reached out to take the hilt in hand as Natsume released it and held her arm out wide, waiting for the Goddess to do respond.

The Iron Queen's expression hardened as she took the blade in hand and stared into Natsume's eyes, and the moment was long and tense. Then her attention was distracted briefly by something behind Natsume and the moment ended.

The face softened and the sword was allowed to fall to the ground.

"My daughter chose her path," Persephone said sadly, before turning back to finish healing Naiki.

"We're getting called in," Mao said to break the scene. "There's another emergency developing and they want as much of my normal team on it as possible."

"And what are we going to talk about in the mean time?" Mara asked, glancing toward the dead Hecate with a regret that was far from sympathetic.

"Mom's going to be in Tokyo," Naiki said, standing up.

Mara winced involuntarily.

"That is acceptable," Persephone said quietly staring as Natsume walked back to sit beside her sister's body.

"I'm going to tell people that they can start bringing people home again," one of Mara's Demons noted before receiving a nod from Mara and vanishing into smoke.

"You two stay here," Mara said to the other Rakshasha. "Guard the town from any other monsters. A cursed forest doesn't get solved in one battle."

"We're leaving a couple here as well," Mao said.

"I can stay," Naiki said starting to stand up.

"I would prefer, granddaughter," Persephone said. "That you find somewhere to rest for a few days. I can tell that you have been healed several times in the last few days, not all recovery can be done with power."

Naiki wanted to snap out "I'm not your granddaughter!" but kept her tongue for once, instead simply opting to fume as she was being mollycoddled.

"She's my pupil," Mara reminded Persephone.

"Wow, I would have thought you'd be afraid my Mom would..." Naiki started as Mara's eyes widened momentarily.

"But I agree, she needs to take some time off," Mara said.

"Coward," Naiki protested.

"Go visit your friend, that girl with the camera," Mara noted. "I'm sure she'll be worried."

"And, how about this kid?" one of the soldiers asked, indicating Hel. "Are we going to take her back to this orphanage she's supposed to be at?"

"She'll stay here," Natsume said firmly, but without looking toward Hel.

The girl swallowed nervously as the one-armed martial artist spoke.

"But I've always grown up in an orphanage..." Hel protested weakly.

"This will be an exception then," Natsume said.

The various individuals split towards their individual tasks until Persephone was left mostly alone as she stood over her daughter's body and looked about the area, not seeming to focus on any of those engaged in activity around her.

"Daughter," the death-seer said in a whisper. "If you hear me, then pass on. It's over, this isn't anything to concern you any longer."

* * *

On a small Pacific island, holding an obscure US military facility dedicated to the neutralization of chemical weapons, Gauron considered the situation and the plan compared to the information he'd just received.

To the side, a computer disk marked "Toybox" lay that had all the schematics and programming information necessary for his little Trojan Horse stratagem, but a curious piece of information had come with the last info dump and he wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

He had a photograph of Captain Teletha Testarossa taken within the past twenty-four hours and it showed a significant difference from the girl's appearance only a week ago.

Normally, a sudden interest in body art would not interest Gauron beyond a trace of amusement. In fact, he'd dismissed the photo as unimportant before he'd picked up some images from the news. Images of a masses of individuals who'd apparently appeared from nowhere and who each had similar facial tattoos.

He didn't understand what the tattoos signified, but he didn't believe in coincidences.

It didn't change the basic plan, however. Pretty soon, he'd have the toybox and its whispered captain in the palm of his hands.

Then he'd be able to do some real damage.

* * *

"Hecate is dead," Tessa said.

Ranma's head snapped up and looked toward the girl.

"Naiki was hurt in the process," Tessa said quietly to Ranma as they walked to her office. "She's going to be fine. We sent her home to rest, stay out of trouble...hopefully."

"We're not very good at 'resting' or staying out of trouble," Ranma said, rolling her eyes. "At least we heal fast."

"I think one of those leads to the other," Tessa noted. "There was someone else there Naiki says you knew."

"Knew?" Ranma repeated, stopping her stride for a moment.

"There was a Kurumi Tendo..." Tessa said softly. "She died in the action."

"I didn't know her well," Ranma said. "I know her family very well though."

"I don't know the details yet," Tessa said. "Naiki was just about out of it when it happened and since deeper resonance is thankfully blocked now, I won't hear from Mao until I see her on the Danaan."

"So you have time maybe to ask Kaname about that machine of yours," Ranma said, changing the subject.

Tessa frowned a moment and looked up and down the hall for a moment.

"I think I might want to wait for there to be more of us," Tessa said. "There's something...I'm perhaps being paranoid, but I'm not sure that will be the easy thing it should be. Anyway, we all have our assignments to do."

"Better safe than sorry," Ranma agreed.

* * *

Belldandy waited for word from those that had remained behind to fight Hecate as she treated the injuries in front of her. This place, she was certain it was the Labyrinth, was tightly packed with the thirty to forty thousand people that had been taken to it.

"You know this is kind of nerve racking with all these Demons," Keiichi said under his breath. "But kind of nice to not have to worry about them attacking us. Like with Mara at that hot springs the one time."

"I know," Belldandy said with a smile. "I wish it were under different circumstances."

"Any sign of Yggdrasil being up and running yet?" Keiichi asked.

"Not yet," Belldandy said. "And apparently Nidhog is still down as well."

"Any word on who got out?" Keiichi asked.

"I thought I saw some familiar faces on the news," Belldandy said. "I haven't heard about Peorth yet, or any of our other friends."

"Peorth's strong," her boyfriend comforted her. "She'll be fine."

Then a Demon teleported in, appearing with Urd as he did to bring the news of the fight.

The elder of the Norns found Belldandy and Keiichi's eyes and waved to them with an encouraging smile that didn't quite hide the fact that not everything had gone according to plan.

* * *

Sarah Miller walked uncomfortably into the room at the side of Commander Kalinin. It wasn't too long ago that she had been rescued by Sousuke Sagara from a Soviet Union research facility. She had recovered a great deal since then, but still wished that she could have Captain Testarossa's confidence.

While the meeting had gone on, she'd rather reluctantly gone through the process of the Whisper of Souls. It hadn't been the most comforting of experiences, but now, afterward, she felt...a little bit more...secure.

That was the best she could describe it.

The room she was in now was filled with the clone girls, well, perhaps that wasn't the best technical term for them, but it was easier to understand than "artificially conceived and bred" girls. In the center were two of the girls who were markedly different from the others, especially in the face.

One, a child in boyish clothes, had green marks like Susan's own new marks. In this child's case, two lines at the corners of her eyes and the outline of a circle on her forehead.

As for Sarah, she had what looked to be floating feathers at the corners of her eyes and a wreath on her forehead. She wasn't entirely sure what that meant exactly.

The other girl next to her also had green marks, the one with a figure Sarah might have killed for before life gave her bigger concerns...such as how to survive repeated "experimentation". This girl had a pair of wave patterns under her eyes and what looked like an eye in the center of her forehead.

"And we're all getting families, real families," one of the other girls said, a girl about fourteen years old with a very slender body build.

"But they have to cut something out of us because of what Mo...Kodachi did to us," another noted. "And we're going to have to take pills everyday the rest of our lives."

"How is that better than once a month?" Yonjuu asked.

"Because Nimu says the other pills are easier to get and it won't get worse," another said.

"Nimu and all the Ni's get to work for Mithril if they want to," the younger girl noted, or at least one of her sisters, Sarah wasn't sure. "It's not fair to those of us of the glorious San batch."

"Excuse me, girls," Kalinin said. "We need to speak to Yonjuu and Yaku for a moment."

Yaku, the boyish child that Sarah assumed was about eight years old looked up and saw Sarah's face and smiled briefly before looking down at the disk in her hand that seemed to produce a holographic screen.

"Oh, hello Mr. Kalinin," the slender fourteen, maybe fifteen, year old said.

"Commander Kalinin, Miss San," the Russian man said politely.

"Sanya San! The Pillar of Strength of the..." Sanya started to say.

"Hmph!" another San interrupted. "You act as if you're of greater importance than I, Gomu San, the Blinding Flash of..."

"Why, you're just good at running," a third protested. "Where as I am Yonsa San, Who Needs No Sleep..."

Yonjuu leaned over toward Kalinin at the third San's comment, as the San boasting got underway and whispered.

"Yes, she doesn't sleep and yes it's as aggravating as it sounds," the older girl said.

Kalinin smirked and shook his head as he ignored the arguments between the various Sans while other girls tried to quiet them.

"We'd like you to take Sarah to the Labyrinth," he said. "And see about connecting to the..."

"Silmaril?" Yaku said. "But if I we do that now, anybody can...any of us can...I think that's bad. There were bad people in with us."

"Yes, umm," Sarah said in an undertone, remembering herself flashes of those "bad people". "We're supposed to make some security measures...I think."

"Copyright protection is stupid," Yaku protested.

Kalinin watched the girl play the game on her computer and considered something.

"Pretend you're making a minigame then," he said.

Yaku looked up at that and cocked her head in thought.

* * *

"Okasan had to buy new furniture," Eija told Deimosu.

"I had to try," Deimosu said. "Do you know what they did to our..."

"Okasan told us," Eija said.

"Then why aren't you out looking for revenge?" Deimosu demanded. "If you know what they did!"

"Because it would only hurt Okasan to run away from her," Eija snapped back.

Both of them remained quiet momentarily.

"Kaname says welcome back," Eija noted.

"She isn't getting you in more trouble is she?" Deimosu asked pointedly. "No more blowing you up and trying to hide it?"

"You don't get to insult Kaname-san!" Eija snapped before catching her breath and straightening herself. "I apologize, my temper is rather stretched."

"Don't worry," Deimosu said. "You're my sister, I forgive you."

Eija arched an eyebrow as he still didn't apologize for insulting Kaname, but let it pass for the moment. She really didn't want to make her first conversation with Deimosu into an argument. Naiki would do that just fine.

She reached over and hugged her brother tightly.

"I'm glad you're back," she said.

* * *

Kaname felt a bit embarrassed to be listening in to Eija's conversation with her brother, even if it was just from her friend's perspective. That rather vehement defense of her was interesting though, made her curious what the big, blonde jerk had said about her.

Not that she thought about it much, Eija's current frame of mind was disturbingly familiar to Kaname, though she couldn't quite lay a finger on it. She didn't need to know why it was familiar to know that it was probably a bad idea to step on that frame of mind.

She looked across at Skuld and smiled briefly.

"So, what are you the Goddess of then?" Kaname asked.

"I'm Goddess of the Future," Skuld said. "And I'm just a year away from my official license and I get to do more than just debug things."

She frowned a bit then before glancing upward, obviously thinking about the war going on.

"I'm sure everything will be all right," Kaname assured her.

"Ah, Kaname, there you are," Tessa's voice came from the doorway then.

Kaname and Skuld turned to see Tessa walking across toward them with a somewhat strained smile.

"So...are you ready for me and that machine then?" the school girl asked, obviously nervously.

"Not yet," Tessa said. "There are still a couple of people ahead of you, and I think Sousuke decided to make sure it was safe first."

There was a twinge in the captain's face as she said that and Kaname misidentified it as a sort of display of irritation with Sousuke's ever cautious nature.

"That's just like him," Kaname said, exasperated herself. "'I will protect you.' Never mind how much trouble he gets himself or us into. So what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, I was going to invite you and Eija to come with me on the Danaan while we attend to this mission?" Tessa said. "We'll be back here in enough time for you to have one more day of vacation on a tropical beach and then back to Tokyo. A submarine cruise and island resort for the last bit of vacation?"

"I thought we were going back with Satomi-san on the plane," Kaname said.

"Ah, yes, Satomi-san is looking for Eija and Deimosu to talk to them," Tessa said. "She wants some time to talk to Deimosu privately. So I suggested that you come on to the Danaan. Don't worry, we'll be far away from any of the action on the submarine."

In truth, being both close and far to Sousuke as he was risking his life didn't sound all that fun. But it had to be better than knowing nothing.

"And what about me?" Skuld asked.

"From what I've heard, you should be safe to go back to your sisters whenever you want to," Tessa told the young Goddess.

"Huh, what are you talking about?" Skuld asked. "It was always safe to go back...wasn't it?"

Tessa was suddenly glad that Urd and Belldandy were not among the fatalities from the fight with Hecate as she started relaying what she could to the two girls.

* * *

Yomiko Readman stood dutifully in the plane, waiting for Ranma Satomi to arrive so that she could get to know her employer and the person she was supposed to be the bodyguard for. Which was why it was something of a surprise when the plane started to taxi away without loading on anybody else.

"Wait a minute," Yomiko said quickly, moving to the cockpit. "Aren't we supposed to wait for Satomi-san?"

"Oh, she's taking another flight," the pilot said. "Apparently wants to spend some private time with her son on the flight back."

"What?" Yomiko gasped in surprise as the plane took off. "What am I supposed to do then?"

"Oh, I have a note here," the co-pilot said, passing it to the frustrated paper master.

Yomiko took the note and opened it up to read it, skipping over the instructions for the moment to get to the end.

"Where the hell have you been anyway?" Satomi-san had written down at the bottom.

"That's what I'd like to ask you?" Yomiko said aloud.

"Ma'am," one of the pilots said.

"Hmm?" Yomiko asked, looking up.

"Shouldn't you be sitting?"

And then the plane took off into the air and Yomiko was sitting...sort of. Her rear-end was on the floor at least.

* * *

These hallways look narrow, but they're actually quite wide for a submarine," Tessa said. "I designed it that way so that if there's an emergency and people have to run, there won't be any accidents."

Kaname nodded as she walked alongside the other whispered, wondering if the girl really was a captain like she claimed. Then again, everybody did seem to do what she said, but that just might be because she was the real captain's secretary or daughter or something.

Eija was just a little bit behind the both of them, quietly analyzing attack angles and escape vectors.

_Could you set that aside for a moment,_ Kaname asked.

_Oh, was I thinking outloud?_ Eija responded. _I'll try to keep that out of my surface thoughts from now on._

_Thanks,_ Kaname said. _Hey, is there anything I do that I need to be careful of?_

_Ummm...maybe...the, uh, fashions...you imagine me in?_ Eija noted.

_What do you mean?_ Kaname asked.

"Anyway, not to interrupt your conversation," Tessa said.

Kaname flushed in embarrassment as she looked toward Tessa's calmly smiling face. Behind her, Eija managed a somewhat flush in response as well.

"You can hear us?" Kaname asked.

"No, but there's this buzzing when you two are talking," Tessa noted.

"Belldandy-san noticed us too," Eija reminded Kaname out loud.

"I didn't notice until after, well," Tessa pointed to her marks. "Anyway, because of the design, we've had no reports of injuries from people walking into things and falling down."

"That doesn't seem like something a normal person would have a problem with," Eija started to say.

And that was when Tessa walked into a pipe on the side of the corridor and from there toppled to the floor. Kaname and Eija exchanged a look of semi-disbelief.

"Are you sure that you're the captain here?" Kaname asked as Eija helped the girl up.

"You know it hurts when people say things like that to me," Tessa noted. "I've worked very hard at my responsibility. I do everything I can to ensure both the safety of my crew and the success of my mission."

Tessa started to turn a corner then and stopped suddenly.

"Captain," Sousuke's voice came around the corner. "They are ready for you in the hangar."

Kaname and Eija popped around the corner upon hearing the voice and saw Sousuke standing there.

"So..." Kaname said, looking to Sousuke's face. "You did it then."

* * *

"This is a great responsibility, Sergeant Sagara," Mardukas noted with ill-tempered tone of voice. "Do not take it in your typically lax and light-hearted manner."

"Sir, yes sir," Sousuke said.

"I assume you expected Lt Commander Kalinin or the Captain herself to be overseeing this," Mardukas said in a calmly disapproving voice. "Unfortunately for you, the Lt. Commander is busy to the..." he paused for a moment to consider what to call the girls "...is busy with another errand. And there is no way I'd let such a half-hearted weekend warrior as you be so close to the Captain in such a close affair."

He pointed toward the machine where Sousuke was about to spend the time waiting for the Danaan to finish preparing. Pretty much locked away from any physical or human contact for that time.

"Do I make myself clear, Sergeant?" Mardukas asked.

"Sir, yes sir," Sousuke returned.

"You are aware that this is purely voluntary," Mardukas asked finally.

"I do, sir," Sousuke said.

* * *

"Affirmative," Sousuke said simply. "Is there a problem?"

"I..." Kaname paused in her speech and then set it aside. "No, I don't see why it should..."

Eija held her silence, mentally and verbally, for a moment before stepping forward.

"Well then," Tessa said. "Sergeant, I think you should tell the Hangar to expect us immediately then."

"Yes, Ma'am, Captain," Sousuke said, snapping a salute and turning about down the hallway.

"He always just calls me Captain," Tessa muttered before realizing she'd spoken aloud.

"Well, he always calls me Chidori and Eija 'Satomi'," Kaname said. "I think he's maybe called us by our first names, once...?"

Eija shrugged.

"Was it while I was unconscious?" she asked.

Tessa twitched and laughed loudly.

"I want to let the both of you know that, outnumbered or not, I have not yet raised the white flag," Tessa noted.

"Umm, what?" Kaname asked.

"Besides, I'm sure I can even the odds with some reinforcements of my own," the lavender haired girl noted.

* * *

"Sousuke's not my type," Naiki noted pointedly out of the blue.

"What is she talking about?" someone nearby asked.

"Maybe if you ordered him to dye his hair blonde..." the demoness noted.

* * *

Ignoring the reason her bluff was so clearly a bluff, Tessa settled down and put her normal expression on her face as she led the other two girls to the hangar.

"Now, I'm not sure you're going to like this," she said. "But you have to see it."

Moving through the open door past Tessa, Eija and Kaname found themselves in a huge room decked out with party decorations and a number of people lined up as if for military inspection.

And, facing the two girls coming in ahead of their captain, they saluted before leading into the party to honor the two girls.

* * *

"Okay, does everyone have the plan worked out?" the lieutenant asked his men.

"What's this about some sort of super AS?" one of the team members asked.

"That's some unconfirmed intelligence off a mercenary unit," the lieutenant said dismissively. "It supposedly has some advanced armor or weaponry, but I doubt it's anything we'd have to worry about."

He looked around the room for any more questions.

"If that's it then get to your stations," he said. "We're going to go in and hand these terrorists their walking papers and be out in time for lunch."

Quietly, he thought to himself that there was no way he was going to let himself be upstaged by a bunch of soldiers of fortune.

* * *

"Splash down detected," the sonar tech declared. "Right on time, Captain."

"Good, keep to minimal speed until Sergeant Major Mao and her people are collected," Tessa noted.

"We've picked up indications that the US team is making their attempt on Gauron's forces," Mardukas noted at Tessa's side.

"Thank you," Tessa said, turning a bit morosely.

"Do you think they'll do the job for us, Ma'am?" one of the bridge asked.

Tessa turned a solemn look toward the speaker and sat up a bit straighter.

"Unfortunately," she said. "I don't think so."

* * *

The first elements of the US team came up out of the water and rushed onto the island. Their eyes were open for the enemy forces, new models that were supposed to be the counterpart to their own M-9s.

That was a bit worrisome whatever the lieutenant said.

Terrorists with access to cutting edge AS models? That spoke of someone with a bit more support than your average joe-schmoe seat of the pants group. The amount of money necessary for nine new-line models would probably have been just as easily spent on getting hold of a small nuclear weapon or two.

"Contact here...I've got a red AS in my sights and engaging," a voice said over the radio.

* * *

Mao came out of the airlock, toweling herself dry as the two soldiers behind her did likewise. She paused as she noted Sousuke at the end of the hallway and waved at him companionably.

"Laying out the welcome mat for me, Sergeant Sagara?" Mao asked with a bit of a twinkle.

She glanced up towards Sousuke's forehead and noted the green oval and daggers on his forehead and at the corners of his eyes before smirking back at him.

"So, how many of us in this thing, now?" she asked.

"I am told that we are approaching a squad strength, Sergeant Major," Sousuke said in a tone of voice that crisply spoke of his reading of that question as a request for a report.

"Is Kurz around?" Mao asked, ignoring Sousuke's standard behavior.

"No," Sousuke said. "He has yet to return from his mission."

"So, the airlock techs said the Indian Ocean Fleet has a team on board?" she asked for confirmation.

"Affirmative," Sousuke said. "Captain Testarossa and Commander Mardukas have insisted that I brief you on the current situation."

"Right, must be something big," Mao said, nodding. "Let's head for the briefing room then, we can stop for one of those Heinekens on the way."

"This close to a mission?" Sousuke asked.

"Don't worry," Mao noted. "I'm going to grab the non-alcoholics. They have..."

* * *

"...no effect!" came the frantic shout over the radio.

"Lay out smoke if you can and fall back to wait for support," the team leader declared.

"It's no use! It's no use! He's too fa-"

"Sgt! Sgt! Respond! Shit! Everyone converge on that location, now! That has to be..."

* * *

"...Gauron again," Mao said, shaking her head as Sousuke finished laying out the situation. "And still with that red AS. Gah, other than the general stuff we know about lambda drivers, do we have anything like a solid idea on what sort of capabilities it has?"

"It is fast and lightly armored," Sousuke said. "He usually engages in melee combat with it rather than ranged, but it can't be assumed that this will always be the case."

"How're you doing on controlling that thing?" Mao asked.

"I have not yet experienced...major difficulties," Sousuke noted.

Mao frowned a bit at that, it wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement. Still it...

* * *

"...can't get any worse, so it has to get better!" the lieutenant shouted. "Stay together! Focus your fire! That...that..."

"It's a damn force field!" someone interrupted.

"Whatever it is, it can't last much longer!" the lieutenant insisted. "Just stay together and focus your fire!"

"AHHHHHHHHHH..."

* * *

"...wwwwwwww" three girls sighed in near unison.

"This is great," Kaname said. "But how'd you get them to let you put a bath like this on a submarine?"

"It's primary purpose is actually for cleaning AS parts with chemicals," Tessa noted. "But when it's not in service, I can pretty much do what I want with it."

"It's not civilization without a hot bath," Eija agreed with a sigh.

"This bath is my pride and joy," Tessa noted, though part of her did note that it felt a bit...colder with Eija in the room. Not physically perhaps, but still.

It was rather odd that Kaname didn't seem to notice anymore.

"I realize that there are a lot of cultures for whom a simple shower is simply not enough. I lived in Japan for a time, as did Mr. Webber, so I realize this."

"Greece is the same...unless its because I have a Japanese mother," the Greek noted.

"Miss Satomi was rather vocal about..."

* * *

"...screaming for their lives," Gauron's calm voice noted as he approached the remaining American coolly and calmly.

He was deliberately giving the impression that he was toying with them rather than simply conserving his action to avoid having his machine overheat. Then again, he might have just done it this way even if he didn't have such a problem.

"Damn you, bastard! Damn you to..."

* * *

"...hell," Kaname muttered under her breath. Eija looked toward her after a moment.

"Is something wrong, Miss Chidori?" Tessa asked, noting the exchange.

"I was just thinking about Sousuke and...now he's like us...I mean you," Kaname said, almost pointedly.

Eija straightened briefly, folding her arms.

"Err, sorry, Eija," Kaname responded quickly, then glancing toward where Tessa was arching an eyebrow. "And Captain Testarossa...but...I just...I don't know...feel...less unique."

Eija and Tessa looked a bit blank for a moment.

"Oh!" Tessa exclaimed momentarily. "I think I understand what you mean."

"Really?" Eija said. "Because she not making any more sense in her head."

"It's not easy to put into words," Kaname responded defensively.

"You've grown up with a normal life," Tessa said.

"My family lives in New York..." Kaname pointed out.

"Comparatively normal life," Tessa corrected with an indulgent smile. "So being Whispered set you apart from the other teenagers."

"Yeah, I guess so," Kaname said.

"And if we can make Whispered...or Ainur now," the Captain noted. "Then that makes you...ordinary again. And maybe we'll forget you?"

Kaname was quiet for a moment.

"Well, I'm not a Goddess or martial artist," she said quietly at last. "I can't do magic or read minds. So, if all I have is being Whispered..."

"It's not all you have," Tessa assured her. "From what I've seen in Korea and since then, you're definitely more...persistent than most people I've encountered."

"Yeah, that's a power," Kaname noted. "What I'm confused by now is why neither of you are worried about it. Well, I guess it was a step up for you, Eija."

"I also feel...less unique," Eija said with a smile.

Kaname listened to the silent addition and sat up straight with a confused look.

"And that's a good thing?" Kaname asked.

"Since you've learned you were Whispered, even a little before that," Tessa noted. "What has your life been like?"

"Well...I got my own pet stalker...kidnapped by terrorists...I almost ate a friend's mind and..." Kaname paused for a moment and sat quietly. "I guess it hasn't been that great."

"And I've lived most of my life living under that particular sword of Damocles," Tessa explained.

"Myself as well," Eija agreed quietly.

The Goddess tried to keep the thoughts of her first kidnapping and, worse, first kill, out of her surface thoughts, but the very effort to do so brought the thoughts to the fore.

Kaname winced as she took in what Eija had failed to hide.

"You see yourself as less unique," Tessa said, ignoring all the signs of the psychic conversation. "We see ourselves as finally..."

* * *

"...belonging to the US top counter-terrorist AS team," a man in a business suit said as he approached Gauron where the man was sitting at the remains of the battlefield.

"Heh, Stars and Stripes forever," Gauron quipped. "So, is this all we can expect? Or do we have signs that the fish is biting?"

"We believe that they are heading this way," the man in the suit noted. "We also have reports that two of the individuals you're interested in are on board."

"Really," Gauron said. "Which is left out then?"

"The green-haired martial artist," was the response. "We have reports that she is..."

* * *

"...crazy," Mara said. "How the hell did humanity get this far so fast?"

"If they're a new network," Belldandy noted. "Then they might have a Prophet."

"You mean like Skuld," Mara said.

"You're too young to remember, Mara," Belldandy said with a smile. "Skuld could become a Prophet, but she hasn't been one for over ten thousand years, not since her first incarnation. I think she subconsciously doesn't like it and keeps herself closed. I don't know about Demons, who your Prophet is or was, that has always been a well kept secret. But it's not a matter of predicting events."

"From what I learned," the Demoness said. "A Prophet is a link to the future. And as useful as fortunes are sometimes, they've never been clear enough to make that much of a difference."

"A Prophet does not predict events," Belldandy said. "They draw knowledge from the future."

"Okay, what's the difference," Mara asked.

"Say there is a God or Demon who will, at some nameless time," Belldandy noted. "Learn how to more efficiently channel energy into creations. A Prophet might draw that discovery from the future and send it to the individual so that they happen upon the discovery tomorrow. This changes the future, the same God or Demon might now end up developing something else in the future..."

"And the Prophet brings it forward," Mara continued in understanding. "And you have teenagers designing experimental submarines and becoming skilled military commanders."

"It's the people who would have invented or discovered the information anyway," Belldandy noted. "But someone is bending time so that their future thought becomes their..."

* * *

"...present she's received healing," the Demon was saying. "But Belldandy and Persephone say that she's showing signs of having been seriously hurt several times, spiritually and physically, in the past week."

"I'm fine," Naiki protested, rolling her eyes. "I'll just head home and..."

A large spatula reached out to block her passage as Ukyou continued to watch the other Demon cautiously.

"The Goddesses have much better healers," the Demon noted. "Belldandy is especially well known. So we trust their word. Mara does not wish for this child to overstress herself. Something about chestnuts."

The demon looked confused. Ukyou did as well and glanced toward Naiki.

"Mom," Naiki said irritably.

"Ahh, Chestnut Fist," Ukyou said before turning back to the other Demon. "I got her fine, you can get back to...whereever the hell you're from."

"Hell's closed unfortunately," the Demon said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Can you give me a rundown of 'seriously hurt'," Ukyou asked.

"Umm, fought a ghost off my friend's mind," Naiki said. "Eija said I was bleeding from my eyes...then there was that curs...err...virus thing trying to kill all the half-breed Demons...and then," Naiki muttered the last bet under her breath.

"What was that?" Ukyou asked.

"I got punked..." Naiki admitted reluctantly.

"Okay then," Ukyou said. "I'm going to call my husband, he'll get Mousse and his girlfriend to meet us."

"Can I call someone before we get started?" Naiki asked.

Ukyou shrugged non-chalantly.

"I don't see why..."

* * *

"...not kill the girl, of course not," Gauron said. "Trust me, in a few hours, Amalgam is going to have itself a shiny new toybox."


	32. Earthly Battles

"This is the AS to be most concerned with," Kalinin said as he pulled up a picture on the screen of a distinctive AS. "We have here people from both the Indian Ocean group and the Pacific Fleet that have engaged in battle with it, and can attest to what I'm about to say."

He took a deep breath.

"You are not equipped to handle this mech," Kalinin said. "If you encounter this machine, run."

"Are you out of your mind?" one of the soldiers asked. "What do you call us in for if all we're going to do is run from the thing."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Grey snapped. "We've seen these things fight if only for a few moments, they're a completely new generation of AS, we can't compete at all. It would be like taking a WWI biplane against a raptor."

"It can't be that far advanced," another soldier said.

"Do not try to rationalize it," Kalinin said. "This is an order, you do not engage this AS if you can avoid it. Failure to obey orders will be punished. Assuming you survive."

Several people swallowed at that.

"To counter the Venom, we have the Arbalest, piloted by Sergeant Sousuke Sagara," Kalinin continued, indicating Sousuke.

"We're just supposed to lay down for some punk?" someone asked.

"Hopefully," Kalinin said. "The avoidance will also have the effect of breaking the Venom operator's focus. The man thrives on conflict and avoiding that should exasperate him to no end. Aside from that, we have one comparative machine, and its AI is locked onto Sergeant Sagara."

Kalinin focused on Sousuke's eyes along with everyone else.

"Are there any further questions?" Kalinin asked.

* * *

Sousuke frowned to himself as the team left to consider their parts in the plan and suit up as the submarine came closer to the target area.

His part in the plan brought up...concerns for him.

The whole mission counted on him being able to take down Gauron. Of taking his lambda driver against the other man's and winning.

And in stripping away the mysticism shrouding chi mastery, Ranma Satomi had showed him measurable results that showcased how far he had to go.

He was the equivalent to a bare trainee set against an accomplished veteran given that Gauron was unlikely to slip out of the proper mindset. Not if he was using drugs to keep it going.

He didn't have much to go on for judging the conflict given the abortive nature of their conflict in the Middle East. And that left things lingering uncomfortably.

The soldier frowned and considered the marks on his head.

* * *

"I'm giving you the opportunity," Tessa had said on introducing the topic to him. "To go through this process, to become like me. Do you understand the consequences?"

"I believe I do, Captain, Ma'am," Sousuke said, standing at attention.

"Any questions?" Tessa asked.

"Will Chidori be expected to...do this, Ma'am?" he'd asked blandly.

"All Whispered will," Tessa noted. "It's too dangerous for us not to."

Sousuke nodded.

"I'll accept the opportunity, Ma'am," he said.

Tessa had blinked.

"Because of Kaname?" she asked quietly, Sousuke unaware of the tone of voice.

"And Satomi Eija," Sousuke said. "I need to be able to protect them at all times."

"Well, yes" Tessa had said, a bit shaken. "But you can do that with..."

She paused as she realized something.

Lifespan.

Sousuke was talking about lifespan. As a human, he could only protect Kaname and Eija for a brief flash of decades before age took away his ability.

It was a profound shock to her that he so seriously considered his place protecting them for his entire life...and a life that could last for millenia.

Did he really have any concept of how long that was.

She wasn't even certain that she did herself.

"That's fine," Tessa said, managing not to stutter. "Make sure to report to this room in the next hour."

* * *

In the passing of minds that were part of the Whispered network, Sousuke had noted Kaname's, and past it, in an echo that most would have probably missed, Eija's.

He couldn't, with any certainty, have picked out any of the other minds save maybe the Captain's, but the fraction of a second that he was aware of Kaname and Eija, eavesdropping on a mundane moment of conversation over ice cream, stretched for eternity.

And then it was gone.

He had to protect that...that crystalline moment of happy normalcy.

Right now, he was the only member of Mithril could do it.

"Is there a problem, Sgt Sagara," the Arbalest's computer asked politely after some time with Sousuke merely sitting there.

"Negative, Al," Sagara said. "Everything is fine."

"Hey! Sousuke," a clear, cheerful and commanding voice called out from below his machine. "Come on down here, soldier, we want a talk."

Leaning out, he saw Chidori and Satomi waiting below, Eija seeming a bit embarrassed by the way Chidori was waving and calling loudly.

"Al, run a diagnostic on the lambda driver," Sousuke said as he climbed out of the AS.

"As you wish, Sgt Sagara," the computer responded.

Hitting the ground, Sousuke was unaware of the other soldiers turning to look at him as the two girls approached him.

"Is there something that you need me to do?" he asked quickly.

"Come back," Eija said quietly, her pale skin flushing with the statement.

"We just came to wish you luck," Kaname said quickly, wrapping an arm around Eija. "You know...with this...mission."

There was a nervousness to her good cheer, where she recognized the danger but didn't want to admit it.

"Luck shouldn't have much to do with it," Sousuke said blindly.

Kaname winced with the statement and frowned briefly before glancing toward Eija and then reluctantly nodding.

"Well, we're offering it to you anyway," Kaname said, smiling.

Eija stepped forward and offered her hand to him, confused for a moment, he reached out to accept her hand.

The Goddess's eyes closed briefly as she whispered quietly.

"Be clean and pure, let your blood run free and unblocked," she whispered. "Let it bring clarity of mind and energy through to your muscles."

He shivered as he felt something seem to push, perceptibly sweat, out of his palm and then the goddess was smiling slightly as she shook her hand clean.

"You're blood is never quite impure," she said apologetically. "But that is the best I can for you with Yggdrasil down. On my own, I'm more curative than preventive, I'm afraid."

"Don't worry, Eija-chan," Kaname said. "You know Sousuke has a talent for this sort of thing."

"Affirmative," Sousuke confirmed tightly, trying not to let this worry and concern through into his voice.

"Are you okay, Sousuke?" Kaname asked. "You seem a bit tighter than usual, and that's saying something."

"I am perfectly fine, Chidori," Sousuke insisted. "Did you need anything else."

Kaname closed her mouth a bit and narrowed her eyes in confusion. She looked like she was about to say something, but was interrupted as Eija put a hand on her arm. He felt a slight buzzing in the back of his head as they exchanged looks.

"No, we have faith you in you," she said smiling. "You'll come back."

"Look, see, you have the word of a Goddess," Kaname said. "And Heaven help you if make Eija-chan into a liar, Sgt Specialist!"

He blinked a bit at that and opened his mouth to say something in response, as Kaname grabbed the martial artist and walked away, leaving him with a smile and Eija shrugging.

_Okay,_ Eija noted. _What was that?_

_I'm not giving him time to respond with some grumpy soldier speak and ruin the moment,_ Kaname explained. _What's eating him? Is that normal pre-fight junk?_

_I have only seen him prior to two fights,_ Eija reminded her. _But he does seem a bit keyed up._

_He'll be fine right?_ Kaname asked as they left the area. _Right?_

_He should be,_ Eija said, trying to think confidently.

Back in the hangar, Sousuke was preparing to climb back up into the Arbalest when another individual walked up to speak to him. He paused as he saw Grey smiling at him in her approach.

"Is one of them the girl?" she asked.

Unaware of the implications as he spoke, Sousuke nodded and responded.

"That is them," he said.

Grey blinked and then looked toward the girls as they left the hangar finally.

"Both of them?" she asked.

"Affirmative," Sousuke said.

Granted, if he'd been aware of the implications and the nature of his building relationship, he'd probably have still remained unaware of the attitudes of others toward such a situation and answered pretty much the same thing.

"Do they know?" Grey asked.

"Chidori and Satomi have an...unusual bond," he admitted.

At this point, Grey's imagination took that step away into the ether away from the truth of the situation.

"You were raised in the Middle East, correct?" Grey asked.

"Affirmative," Sousuke responded.

"I thought the harem thing was ancient history," she said, shaking her head. "Well, you all three...seem happy..."

She wandered off, a bit more confused than she had been to start.

* * *

Mao and Sousuke entered their machines and ran over their last checklists as they went over their private briefing with Captain Testarossa an hour prior to the common briefing.

* * *

"As Ainur you two have another resource, but it's not one to be using too much, if at all," Tessa said calmly.

"We can borrow abilities from others," Sousuke agreed. "I saw Chidori do this with Satomi Eija's 'death sight' recently."

"I think I did something like it myself," Mao said. "Though I think that was more like comparing notes."

"Yes," Tessa said. "But right now, remote access..."

"Captain, permission to speak freely," Mao said.

"Go ahead," the lavender haired girl said with a sigh.

"Just call it magic and spells, it's easier," the Sergeant Major noted.

Tessa crossed her arms momentarily.

"And how is that any more difficult than programs, routines and applications?" she asked. "Nevermind, we'll do it that way."

The sixteen year old captain shook her head in a huff and continued with what she said.

"Right now, if we borrow something, it will stress the source of the spell," she said. "And we don't have a system of easy patching so it might not be combat practical to try this. So I'm just going to suggest...don't try it unless necessary."

"Affirmative," Sousuke agreed.

"Understood, Captain," Mao said playfully. "Don't act like an akira just because you have no toys, perfectly clear."

"Captain, what is defined as necessary?" Sousuke asked.

Tessa thought about it for a moment and responded.

* * *

"Sousuke, you listening on this channel?" Mao asked.

"Affirmative," he responded.

"I saw you talking to Eija and Kaname," the Sergeant Major said. "You're getting yourself a bit keyed up here, and we can't have that."

"Understood, Ma'am," the Sergeant said. "I know I can beat him this time."

The conversation he'd briefly listened in on between Eija and Kaname came to his mind again, and he knew again that he had to protect that from all the dangers that he could.

"All right, don't get too gung ho," she said.

"Affirmative," Sousuke noted.

* * *

"Urzu-1 in position," McAllen called out.

"Urzu-2 in position," Mao returned, looking about her AS at the water surrounding her.

This continued onward for each of the members of the SRT.

"Urzu-7, Isaz stay ready for our friend the Venom," McAllen ordered. "You all have the most experience with this target."

"Affirmative," Sousuke said. "Urzu-7 ready."

"This time, we'll take him down," Bill agreed. "Isaz-1 ready."

"Isaz-2 in position," Gray noted as well as the rest of the Indian Ocean group responded.

"Everyone, go," McAllen ordered

Underwater, Mao triggered the explosives on the massive grate blocking entrance into the facility through its drainage pipe, and then both she and Danigan were rushing inside.

Up above, it was a clear ambush as the SRT ASes surprised and took down each of the Amalgam ASes out of near total surprise.

"Urzu-5 here, sector clear," he said.

"Urzu-3, likewise, no sign of venom yet," another noted.

"Urzu-2, the hostages are secure, PRT is evacuating them now, joining the venom hunt," Mao called.

"Understood Urzu-2," McAllen said.

A burst of AS rifle fire stripped by his AS and struck the ground in an eruption and he quickly turned toward the fire and cursed as he recognized where the shot had come from.

"Oh shit! Sorry, chief," the fill sniper called out. "I thought you were..."

"You almost got me too, bastard," another voice declared. "Urzu-1, remind me to have some choice words with Urzu-6 about badly timed extra-unit missions. I could be lounging about in..."

"Watch the chatter," McAllen snapped.

"Venom spotted!" another voice declared.

"Moving to your position," Sousuke declared.

He burst into a near sprint with the Arbalest as he raced across the island toward where his AI said the reported sighting was.

"Urz-8, fall back," McAllen ordered. "Let the Antivenin team handle it."

"Shit its fas...!" the radio went to static as Sousuke came around a corner to find the M-9 being literally torn in two and tossed aside by the red venom.

"There he is again, the bastard," Bill declared. "Urzu-7, this is you again and no peanut gallery this time."

"Enemy support units detected on left flank," Grey declared. "Engaging."

"Right, give him a clear room," Gauron spoke calmly over the radio. "That's it, just you and me Kashim, just like it should be."

"Quite!" Sousuke shouted over the comm as he leaped his machine in to face against the other man's machine. "Lambda driver activate."

"Lambda driver operational," Al said in his calm, programmed voice.

The weapon in Sousuke's hand lifted up, a cannon in the shape of an assault shotgun, and fired. The shells ripped outward, carrying with it some of the aura that generated by the lambda driver. The battle aura faded off the projectiles however as they slammed into the field produced by Gauron's own machine.

The venom shuddered and took a step back, drawing a calculating expression from its pilot as he adjusted.

"Well, it seems Mithril's been improving it's toys a bit," he said idly. "Let's see if you can keep this up."

He dashed forward and dodged another blast rather than try to deflect it again, blade in hand the Venom swung down on the Arbalest and frowned when Sousuke's machine rose up its gun to block, bringing both fields to slam into each other solidly.

"Not this time, Gauron," Sousuke said. "You aren't getting your way this time."

Sousuke pushed forward, the Arbalest taking a step and sending his lambda driver field into Gaurons and shattering it completely. The machine was magnifying his own power and he was now more than he had been.

Matters weren't on equal footing between him and Gauron this time.

"Damn machine!" Gauron snapped angrily as he piloted frantically to roll away from the wash of energy. "How the hell...it's the same machine...how could they have improved it so much?"

Sousuke kept a severe and serious face as he fired then, the shell smashing into the Venom's side and only partially deflected as it did so. Around him, he could hear the cheers of his teammates as he readied his gun again.

"Error...error," the computer said then. "Er.."

The third repetition ended in static as Sousuke's screens went dark and his machine froze in place.

"Come on! Get moving!" Sousuke shouted angrily. "Talk to me Al! System is locked in reboot, Urzu-7!"

"Heh, it just doesn't seem fated, does it Kashim?" Gauron said with a smirk as the Venom rose to its feet. "You're just never going be able to get the best of me."

The venom tossed it's knife from one hand to the next and then started forward to strike against the frozen AS. Inside the Arbalest, the start-up screens were running through in a blur, but it was still taking too long.

Sousuke grimaced as he watched the approaching Venom, unable even to open his cockpit to try something himself.

And then the chasis of the Venom seemed to erupt into yellow electricity, slowing and then stopping it with an uncoordinated tumble.

Glancing toward the side, Sousuke saw Mao standing on the edge of her cockpit ramp, hand out stretched and her Ainur marks just started to fade back to normal as she wavered in clear fatigue.

* * *

"Urzu-2, get the heck out of there," McAllen shouted.

Gauron frowned as he turned to look at the woman who seemed to have somehow called down a bolt of lightning and tossed his knife out toward her AS, watching as she ducked under the massive weapon.

Mao cursed under her breath as the vehicle sized knife narrowly missed obliterating her and moved straight into her AS. Leaping down she tucked and rolled to soften the impact with the ground, grunting as she struck it and rolled back up toward her feet.

"Active!" Sousuke shouted.

"Lambda driver still inoperable," the AI noted.

"All right, then," Sousuke said, concentrating hard as he fired the assault cannon at the Venom.

"You're kidding, attacking with the lambda driver," Gauron said with a chuckle as he turned away from where Mao was limping to cover ahead of a small burst of 50mm.

The first shell and those that followed were knocked aside by Gauron's lambda driver until the Arbalest was close up and thrusting the butt of the cannon up into the venom like a shotgun might be used in melee.

Gauron was making only a mild effort to block the attack until he saw the narrow line of energy coating the machine and saw the sparks of two lambda fields working against each other. Though this time, he had to barely shift himself to throw Sousuke's AS across the battlefield.

"What the hell was th..." Gauron started to say before he found himself tumbling forward again, the computer screaming about damage to the cooling system and shutting down as a result.

"Feeling distracted, bastard?" Bill asked idly as one of two Indian Ocean M-9s put it's mechanical boot on the back of the Venom and lowered a cannon to its head.

"Very good," Gauron said, recovering himself. "You've got me. I surrender. What now?"

"Urzu-2, Urzu-7 status," McAllen demanded.

"Urzu-2 here," Mao said tightly. "Leg's busted, shoulder out, can't get it put back in the right place just now."

"Urzu-7, active," Sousuke said bitterly. "Running diagnostic now."

"Received," McAllen said. "Urzu-2, sit tight, we're sending a MedEvac for you."

"Tell them to bring beer," Mao grimaced.

* * *

Kalinin watched as Gauron approached him, guarded by a number of PRT soldiers. He frowned at the killer's calm, smiling face and wondered exactly what he felt he was accomplishing to be captured.

"Well, Commander," Gauron said. "So we're meeting face to face this time."

"For the last time, I hope," Kalinin said.

"We'll see about that," Gauron said, and then he frowned as he noticed Sousuke nearby. "Kashim, when did you get into tattoos?"

"Get him out of here," Kalinin ordered quickly.

The commander walked over to where McAllen and Sousuke were gathered around Mao.

"Leave us for a moment," he said to the medics.

"But, Sergeant Major Mao needs..." one of them started to say.

"I'll be fine for a couple of minutes," Mao said.

Reluctantly the medics left the four alone for a moment, standing far off.

"Comments on the computer error, Sergeant?" Kalinin asked Sousuke. "Is this something that has happened before?"

"Negative," Sousuke said. "I've never found the program to experience fatal error before."

"It was damned convenient timing," McAllen said. "Just as he was about to obliterate that smug bastard. Mao?"

"Yeah, really convenient," Mao muttered irritably. "What's the Captain think?"

"The Captain hasn't said," Kalinin said. "But I imagine the same thing we are."

"We've been infiltrated," McAllen noted.

* * *

Tessa let Kalinin deal with the potential for a saboteur on the sub while she watched the footage of Mao calling on Deimosu's powers in the fight and thought of the last danger she'd warned them about.

"If we do this now, before we've got Silmaril up and linked with safeguards and protocols," she had said. "Then we basically advertise to everyone actively in the network how to do it. And we don't know who is paying attention at any given time."

Even if it apparently powered the ability with the chi of the person actually using it, that meant they may have just armed their enemies with a new weapon.

* * *

Deimosu shivered a moment and wondered whether or not it was because his mother was sitting across from him silently. A moment later, it felt like he'd used his electrokinesis but then the feeling passed and he was back to sitting quietly across from his mother in the airplane.

"I'm sorry," Ranma whispered finally.

"You're apologizing to me?" Deimosu said in a surprised tone.

"I should have told you about this...earlier," the red-head noted. "Now...they'll be asking for you to pay after things are settled."

"Yeah, I know," he said quietly. "I knew they would...I wasn't worried about what would happen to me."

"And you thought that you were the only one that pay a price," Ranma continued. "It's a teenager thing, I know."

"But what can they do to you or anybody else?" Deimosu asked.

"They can take Eija and Naiki's brother away," the woman said firmly. "They can take my son away. Isn't that a price?"

"Then why did you teach us to fight if not to do this?" Deimosu demanded.

"You know the answer to that," Ranma said softly but with iron. "I've always told you that."

"To protect ourselves and protect others," Deimosu said quietly.

They were both quiet for a long time.

"Did you destroy the Doublet System because it needed to be done," Ranma asked. "Or did you destroy because you wanted to be able get revenge for me?"

Deimosu looked away from the question, the implication obvious.

His mother agreed the system had to be destroyed, might have done so herself if she had the chance. But she likely thought it needed to be destroyed because of the threat it represented to civilians amongst the Demons and Gods.

He'd only destroyed it because it was in his way.

Ranma nodded and leaned forward across the seats to wrap her arms around his shoulders.

"You need to get back on the martial artist's path," she whispered. "Come back to us."

"I'll try," Deimosu said reluctantly.

* * *

Yonjuu sniffed a bit as she felt a haze of Deimosu's emotions through the dimensional barriers. She couldn't hear the thoughts at the moment, but the emotion itself felt very intense and touching.

"Why is Big Sister Baggage crying?" Yaku asked as she passed by.

"Would you please stop calling me that," Yonjuu pleaded with the little girl.

"Why does she call you that?" Sarah asked quietly.

Yaku pointed up towards Yonjuu's chest and smiled.

"She has baggage," the little girl said.

"Huh?" the rather nervous teenager asked. "But she's beautiful."

"No I'm not," Yonjuu protested. "I'm too tall, too thick and too...big..."

"But...big is good," Sarah said in a bit of confusion. "Guys like big."

"Eww, how could they possibly like this?" she wondered.

"Maybe we should just concentrate on the project," Sarah noted, shaking her head in confusion.

Yonjuu looked toward some of the soldiers in the labyrinth with them, apparently with a number of map-makers, architects and engineers as well. She'd already taken a few on a trip through the labyrinth as it was.

"Was the crystal thing bigger?" Yonjuu asked.

"It's supposed to be," Yaku said.

"What?" Yonjuu said.

"Silmaril is growing," Sarah said idly. "It's replacing the walls in some places, but it's leaving the mushroom cavern and the water."

"How big is it going to get?" Yonjuu asked.

"If I understand Yaku's original design..." Sarah said. "It'll probably stop short of this room. At least for now."

"How much power is that?" Yonjuu asked meekly.

"Probably enough to break the world," Yaku said.

"Several times over," the older whispered agreed.

* * *

"Hey, thanks for coming by," Naiki said as Kyoko arrived.

"Oh, it's no problem," Kyoko noted. "Kaname, Eija and Sousuke aren't around and Mizuki got herself grounded, so I might as well hang out with you."

She smiled brightly at the explanation.

"Yay, I feel special," Naiki said in a deadpan tone.

"Well, I don't know too many demons," Kyoko noted.

Naiki shuffled nervously.

"How exactly do you know about that?" Naiki asked.

"Well, I think it started when Eija introduced your grandmother..." Kyoko said.

"She's not my grandmother," Naiki said quickly.

"Yeah, but Persephone DisPater," the blonde girl repeated, pushing up her glasses. "And that explained the superpowers and why Eija creeps people out despite being nice. She's Hades' granddaughter. But you didn't go to the same place while you were gone, and came back with different colored marks...so if Eija's a Goddess then you must be a Demon."

"Uh, it sounds obvious the way you say it," Naiki said nervously. "Does anybody else..."

"I don't think so," Kyoko said shrugging and smiling casually. "So what's going on here?"

"Mom asked these people to help me practice defense," Naiki said, gesturing back toward the building that held her four unwanted sensei. "But just doing some light stuff right now since I'm 'hurt'"

She lifted up her fingers to give air quotes around that last word.

"Here right?" Kyoko asked, poking Naiki in the side.

Instantly, the demoness winced and started to double over way from the finger.

"Oww..." Naiki said quietly.

* * *

"Keiichi! Belldandy! Everybody" Megumi shouted as she opened the door to see the Norns and Keiichi outside her door.

"Everybody?" Skuld and Urd asked each other as they each noted the lack of their actual names being used.

"What happened to you guys! I went over and the shrine was trashed! It looked like there was a war or something."

"There was," Skuled muttered.

"Yeah, some...people came by," Keiichi said. "And...well, we had to get out of there."

"Oh my god!" Megumi shouted loudly. "Did you call the police?"

"It's taken care of," Keiichi promised her. "And speaking of 'Go..."

"With a lower case 'g'," Belldandy suggested calmly.

"Anyway, we have to talk about something, Megumi," Keiichi said. "It's about the Norns."

"What's that?" Megumi asked in a worried tone.

"Have you been watching news?" Urd asked, pointing to the marks on her face.

"Yeah, I kind of noted the tattoos they all had..." Megumi said.

"You might want to sit down for this, Belldandy quietly suggested witha a smile.

* * *

"You know," Shepard said, looking back over his shoulder. "Your make up is starting to come off."

Nimu frowned and reached up to her forehead and the blush there that was supposed to cover her marks for the moment.

"I suppose it wasn't made for this sort of activity," she noted.

"Interesting tattoos, by the way," the major noted idly. "Going to make undercover work interesting."

"Yeah, I don't think that will be a problem," Weber said. "We're not planning to..."

"Hold it," the dark-skinned sensitive said suddenly.

Teyla stopped and turned to look to their right towards what seemed to be simply more trees.

"Teyla?" Shepard asked.

"Something is here," she said. "Check your amulets."

Nimu and Kurz nodded and took their amulets out and visible, finding that the blue and red crystals were actually growing darker. Weber held his out and walked closer to the part of the forest that Teyla was looking towards and watched as two of crystals turned almost completely black.

"Well...that's funny," Weber said without a trace of a smirk.

"This is a San effect," Nimu said suddenly.

"Excuse me?" Shepard asked. "A 'San effect'?"

"Yes, the San batch have abilities that enhance their physical skills and the like," she explained. "One of my sisters amongst them had a stealth field that worked by absorbing her trace presence in the area."

"And where is this sister now?" Teyla asked.

"Gone," Nimu said grimly.

"The point is, something's here," Shepard said. "We're here to get info, let's get some."

Kurz swung back his sniper rifle and pulled up his P90 and nodded.

Nimu quietly moved toward Kurz's flank, holding her pistol and keeping low and quiet as the four fanned out and slipped into the area of the trees where the mana and pishogue was subdued.

It didn't take long for them to find a clearing that held an encampment holding nearly twenty people, a mix of Demons and Gods by the marks on their faces, most of them younger than fifteen in appearance.

Standing in front of them and looking into the surrounding trees carefully, were two adults, both looking more than a little battered and in need of some sort of medical care.

One was a pale woman with a pair of dark wings out of which two large eyes blinked as the wings shifted about in various directions. The other was a tall man with tanned skin leaning on a makeshift staff, but ready to bring it up in defense.

"Survivors," Weber noted in realization.

"Are you coming or not cowards?" the man said.

"Hey, hey," Shepard said, standing up and stepping forward. "Easy on the hostility."

The two demons in front blinked and looked toward each other cautiously as they looked down to the firearm in the Major's hands.

"How'd you find us?" the man asked.

"Teyla?" Shepard asked over his shoulder. "Ichi?"

Weber looked back toward Nimu and nodded before standing up and walking forward himself, staying ahead of Nimu to obscure her face for the moment.

Teyla walked out into the clearing first and let her weapon slide to the side, but still in easy reach for quick use.

"Greetings," she said in a friendly tone. "I'm Teyla Emmagan, I happen to be a sen..."

"There's an immortal with them," the woman noted quickly, eyes fixing toward Nimu where she was coming into view standing slightly behind the blonde. "You can't hide that from me. There aren't many demon death-seers left, but I'm one of them."

"Crap," Weber said, turning to look back toward Nimu.

"Let's continue with introductions," Shepard said, glancing toward the Mithril agents.

"Indeed," Teyla said, glancing toward Nimu herself. "I am Teyla Emmagan of Socrates Group, I'm a sensitive and telepath. This is Major Shepard of the United States Air Force."

"Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen," Shepard said nodding.

"Fene, Category 2, Demon of Obscurement," the man said looking toward the immortal that his partner had noted.

"Vanth, Category 3, Demon of the Deathbed," the woman noted, her wings unfurled and the eyes focused over toward Nimu.

"And maybe we can get a complete introduction over there?" Shepard suggested.

"Sergeant Kurz Weber, Mithril SRT," Weber said reluctantly.

"And the other?" Vanth declared. "Is she one of those enlightened human masters?"

The teenager stepped forward and wiped at the make up on her face to uncover her green marks completely which caused the demons and the people behind them to open their eyes wide.

"Nimu Ichi of the Ichi batch, Ainur," she said firmly and proudly.

"Humans have evolved this far?" Fene gasped in shock.

"That must be how they humans managed to purge the impurity virus from our Network," Vanth said, her wings vanishing into her back as she marginally relaxed. "You've entered the self-evolution phase like us."

"Apparently so," Teyla said then, looking toward Nimu momentarily and then stepping forward. "Are you survivors of the attack here? Perhaps we can help with the wounded."

"I am a medic," Vanth said quickly before continuing, "but if you have supplies..."

"We don't know that they're any better than those murdering rebels," Fene noted.

"If it helps," Weber said. "Our commanding officer had contact with Mara Geisthexe prior to us coming out here."

"That could have been useful information," Shepard noted under his breath.

"Mara survived," Fene said as if surprised and then dismissing that. "You still didn't say how you found us, I've cloaked the entire area."

"Against Pishogue and against Mana," Teyla noted in a friendly tone. "Not against Chi."

She paused and turned back the way they had come looking serious.

"We should move," she said quickly.

"Problem?" Weber asked.

"There's a tracker behind us," Teyla said. "He's thinking a bit a loudly in our direction, but he doesn't know what he's following yet."

"Siler or Quinn?" Shepard asked.

"No, I'd say it's our other friends," the sensitive noted.

"Amalgam," Weber noted bitterly.

Fene's eyes widened briefly and he turned back toward the collected refugees.

"Let's move," he ordered.

"We're not going to be able to hide a trail of twenty or more people," Nimu noted, how far can you people teleport.

"Nifelheim is closed, no more than a hundred feet," Vanth said. "Gods can travel through mediums without worrying about that stuff, and what about you?"

"Not something I can accomplish yet," Nimu noted.

"A hundred feet is plenty to through them off," Weber said. "Head south, we'll catch up."

"And meanwhile," Fene asked.

Shepard smiled as he pulled out a claymore mine.

"I've had a few encounters with Amalgam in the past," he noted. "Think I'll give them a hello before I follow."

"Sounds good to me," Weber said with a smirk. "By the way, Nimu, remember what I said about moving something small from a distance?"

"Yes," Nimu noted.

"Think Miss Emmagan can let my girl here see something from a distance better than my scope?" he asked.

"It might be possible," Teyla said.

* * *

"There was a large group here," one of Amalgam's soldiers said as they came into the clearing. "The soldiers we've been tracking met up with them. Looks like their was some medical work done here, but the blood is old. Children's foot prints. Can't see how they left the area."

"Damn, this is turning out to be a bust," the other mercenary with him said. "We've lost three shadows and ten men to that skirmish and only took one prisoner and now we miss out on a bunch of others."

He shook his head, glancing around.

"Gates' team is going to outshine us easy," he muttered.

"I think I found a trail, same soldiers we picked up before," the tracker said. "Very faint, covering their trail more effectively. I'd say they know they're being followed now."

"Crap, sir, found something," another soldier said calling the officer over.

"What is it?" the man asked moving forward.

He found the man look at a claymore mine uncovered in the brush around them. Strangely it didn't seem as if it had its tripwire set.

"Almost missed it," the soldier noted. "It was practically wedged in place over here, almost invisible. But that doesn't make sense the way they placed it."

"Yeah, there's no way to set it to trigger in there," the officer noted as he looked into the hollow the soldier was indicating the claymore had been. "I wonder what they were..."

Both the soldier and the officer stopped talking as they watched the tripwire pull out of the mine on its own.

"What the..."

* * *

An explosion erupted far off in the distance as Teyla and Nimu concentrated from their position.

"Next," Shepard said with a smirk just before another explosion was heard.

Three more explosions sounded off soon after.

"Two got out," Weber said from where he watched down toward the scene with his scope.

The sniper pulled the trigger.

"One," he said, shifting his rifle slightly and firing again. "And we're clear."

"So maybe you can explain something about Miss Ichi here and being an 'immortal' that woman said," Shepard commented.

* * *

In a particular laundry room, the staff casually chatted about as they went about their tasks as they did everyday.

"And the president is talking to some cultural anthropologist or something," one of them was saying. "The TV is saying some of these people that appeared out of nowhere are calling themselves gods or something."

"That's just totally..."

Whatever he'd been about to say was interrupted as a figure burst out of one of the dryers and landed in a crouch on the floor between them. Everyone stepped back away from the woman that had just appeared out of the laundry and was even now standing and shaking her head. At least two fled out of the room yelling loudly.

"Laundry was an easier medium to travel through before the invention of machines to do the job," she muttered.

She turned to look at one of the several humans around her and cricked her neck.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"Stop right there, Secret Service," someone shouted as several men in dark suits flooded into the room and pointed guns at the woman. "Identify yourself."

She smiled briefly and raised her hands casually.

"Morrigan, Category 1, Goddess of Bloodshed," she said. "Eyes of Ra senior investigator. And just to warn you, it'll take a few more bullets of larger caliber than you can hold in those clips to actually slow me down."

* * *

"Well she claims to be the Morrigan," a scholarly looking man said to the president.

"And that means?" a short man gaining some weight in his final years asked. He was wearing a uniform that marked him as an Air Force general.

"Well, they were a Celtic triple goddess," the scholar noted. "I already asked if we should be expecting more and she's said the other two died a long time ago...well, to be specific, she the way she put it was that 'she lost her other two bodies long ago', but anyway..."

"What is she here for?" the president asked pointedly.

"Delivering information," Jackson said. "She says she's on the wrong continent and mentioned she needed to contact her people. She also asked for two people by name: Ranma Satomi and Teletha Testarossa."

"I'm familiar with these names," the president said.

"Sir?" the Air Force general noted.

"Mithril personnel, General Hammond," the President said.

"Mithril as in the organization that delivered the report on Gods and Demons in the first place," the scholar noted.

"That's correct Dr Jackson," the President said. "What's our recent account on the numbers of these refugees on American soil?"

"Nearly fifty thousand of these Gods and about sixty thousand so-called Demons," a man noted dryly.

"Okay, let's talk to her," the President said.

"I'd suggest otherwise, Mr. President," another air force officer said. "She wasn't particularly concerned with the secret service that took her into custody, and she practically shrugged out of her handcuffs by accident."

"But she also hasn't attacked anyone, Jack," Jackson noted.

"Well, I for one am curious to meet someone that claims to be a Goddess, should be interesting," the President said. with a smile.

* * *

It was a little bit later when he walked into the room with the leather-clad woman sitting there and keeping an amused expression on her face, though an expert could see a look of urgency as well. In the old days, she'd have just ignored all these people and gone looking for Persephone and the Norns or someone else. However, she was well aware that at the moment they couldn't afford to tick off the human powers of the world.

"So, Miss Morrigan is it," the president said idly as he sat down across from her. "Should I be praying to you."

"Please, you gave us that name," Morrigan said rolling her eyes. "I was baptized in Chicago, 1912, last time I was a child."

"Oh, Chicago, now there's a town," the President said. "So, if that makes you an American citizen then, should I know if you voted for me or not?"

"We don't vote in human politics President Hayes," Morrigan said. "And excuse me if I'd like to get on with this. I have people to contact, if you weren't probably the fastest way to contact them, I'd probably be on my way."

"And what interest do you have in these people you named?" the President asked.

Morrigan hesitated.

"Given that you've stated that we couldn't stop you if we wanted to," Hayes noted. "I'm guessing you've already realized that you're going to need cooperation with humanity, or at least us, as whole. We've already got some reports of injuries that suggest your people aren't all as invulnerable as you claim."

The goddess nodded and sat up straight.

"One of our chief administrators was visiting family when this all happened," Morrigan said. "Said family is also related to Demons, and I know there's a category 1 Demon hanging around them. If anybody's going to be the center point for figuring out the whole picture, it's going to be the people around Satomi."

"And Testarossa," the president asked.

"Of the humans that I know have immortal contacts," she said. "Teletha Testarossa and Ranma Satomi are the two that might be in your files. Being Mithril and Psyche, respectively. And given that most American presidents have a straight line to Mithril, I figured staying around here would be the best idea."

"What was your first plan?" the president asked.

"Head to Japan and checking home addresses," Morrigan said. "Hoping they hadn't already gone under the radar."

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to report to me," the President asked.

"No offense, I'll talk to my superior first," Morrigan said.

"Of course."

* * *

Leonard Testarossa took note of the overdue nature of each of the three teams he'd sent to attack locations where he suspected to combat troops of these new races. He grimaced briefly but nodded as he realized it wasn't any better than he probably could have expected.

"Costly experiment," he decided. "Amalgam's leaders and accountants are going to be a little upset with me."

He smiled without a trace of concern for that and looked out the window where he could see the lunatic Gates coming into the compound with four specimens.

Snatching the clear civilians of these new, or old, people had, of course, been the logical way to go about this. And now at least he had something to play with and perhaps, given his recent agreement with Sophia, something else besides.

"Psyche's little meddlers are working together more often than ever," his visitor noted irritably. "And when it's not Psyche, it's Mithril. Or both. They've been looking for my girls since those first two facilities were freed."

"Your fault for not burning them to the ground instead of letting them out alive with that information," Leonard said.

"I dislike this new toy your ghost in the machine wants to give you," Kodachi said vehemently.

"Of course you do," Leonard said. "It means you can't eat anybody who uses it. Don't worry, Miss Kuno, I'm sure you can keep yourself well supplied without worrying about us."

"Hmph," the woman declared, crossing her arms. "And out of this, she hopes to take the body of merely one other girl, there is more to this than either you or she is telling me."

"Of course there is," Leonard said with a smile. "And there's more to your little organization than you're telling me. At the moment we need each other."

"Yes, I'd noticed you'd lost a couple of facilities already," Kodachi said with a smirk. "I'm guessing neither had adequate paranatural defenses, I've made the same mistakes in the facilities with my girls. I'm sure we can fix that little vulnerability assuming, of course, you're willing to provide the military might."

Kodachi wandered toward the window and watched the captured Gods and Demons being taken down below with a quirk of the mouth.

"Yes, I think Legion can help Amalgam quite well," Kodachi said finally. "Even if I don't accept your offer to lose my appetite. And when do we find this girl your ghost wants so much?"

"If we're lucky," Leonard said, "then that will be taken care of soon anyway."

"How unfortunate," Kodachi said. "I was looking forward to trying my hand at a siege. By the way, I notice you're remarkably calm for someone that has a tasty little mind yourself."

"Resonance with another Whispered, or should I say a real Whispered, isn't going to be what you're used to," Leonard said. "And you know that. Otherwise I'd expect you'd have tried by now."

Kodachi narrowed her eyes and turned back to watching the proceedings outside.

* * *

"There is a guard on the prisoner, Captain," Mardukas said. "None of them are from the SRT team."

"Good," Tessa noted. "Until we know who sabotaged Sergeant Sagara's computer, we need to be careful. Kalinin is making inquiries with the Intelligence division at the moment, because if there's one here... I hope that doesn't ruffle too many feathers."

"If I may, Captain, I've heard some rumors since your reveal," he noted. "Some people seem to think you're setting yourself up to be the new director."

Tessa took a deep sigh and shook her head.

"At least they're not accusing me of trying to become a God," she said.

"Isn't that exactly what you did?" Mardukas asked.

"I really hope not," Tessa said.

* * *

"Sousuke-kun!" Eija called out in relief as she saw him down the hallway.

"Sousuke!" Kaname called out behind her. "We heard about Mao and that your AS crashed, is everything okay?"

Kaname came to a stop and then leaned both her hands onto her knees taking a breath as Eija came to a simple stop and grabbed Sousuke's hand without thinking about it.

"There was a...fault in my computer," Sousuke said looking around. "The machine locked up at a crucial point, Mao drew fire to give me time to get up and running."

"Thank God everything's going to be fine," Kaname said, wiping her forehead and then grabbing Sousuke's other hand.

"We lost a team member," Sousuke noted quietly.

He knew that casualty had not been avoidable, the Venom had simply been too fast for the man to pull away. But the injuries to Mao and forcing them to make use of the network like that could have been avoided if someone hadn't sabotaged the Arbalest. Still, he kept his anger over that hidden for the moment.

"I'm sorry, Sousuke," Eija said. "I wish there was more..."

One of the crew stopped while passing an intersection and looked to see both girls holding Sousuke's hands and then gave a bit of a wolf whistle that suddenly had both girls pulling their hands back. Kaname giving the whistler a firm glare as Eija merely bowed and blushed.

"Anyway, Specialist Sagara," Kaname said immediately to the confused looking mercenary. "You're back and Mao is in the clinic. So everything will be fine now."

"I should see if I can help," Eija said, moving past Sousuke and into the clinic.

"Chidori, is there something wrong with Satomi?" Sousuke asked, turning to look at Kaname after the goddess moved into the clinic.

"W...She just likes you," Kaname said quietly.

_Kaname! That's not fair! If you...oh!_

"I was not aware that was ever a question," Sousuke said.

"What?" Kaname said in response to Sousuke's statement.

"Well, usually if Satomi dislikes someone, she gets a bit more formal and says less," Sousuke said. "I have never seen such signs directed toward me. She is much easier to read in that way than you, Chidori."

"And she likes you too! Sousuke!" Eija said rushing back to the hallway. "And...and...and...that was an admission wasn't it?"

Eija's pale skin flushed very brightly then.

"An admission of what?" Sousuke asked.

"Let's not talk about admitting to things in an open hallway?" Kaname said then. "Not that I am, mind you."

_Eija! How could you do that!_

_Well you did it to me._

_Not broadcasted at the top of my lungs._

Both girls stopped and a creeping expression of realization started to cross each of their faces.

_It's true isn't it._

_Yes, I'm afraid it is._

_I mean not just sort-of-nice-hanging-around-with-him like._

_No, I think this is cupid's-arrow-have-babies like._

_Oh my God, when did we become Ryoko and Ayeka?_

_Didn't they fight all the time? Aren't we more like Min and Aviendha from Wheel of Time?_

_Why Aviendha?_

_Didn't she think about killing Rand once?_

_I am not that ba...wait, if we're like Min and Aviendha, who's Elayne?_

Both girls turned to look at Sousuke then and the blush that had been fading returned.

"Is there something..."

"No Elayne!" both girls said at once.

* * *

Okay, I'm not sure I'm going to make a chapter a week, but I'll try...just so you know what else is going on:

Getting ready for Chimera-Con

Writing Haunted Bystander which is book two in my Bystander series

Planning Greenwater 3

Converting Divine Blood into a roleplaying setting...which means renaming and reworking some characters so as not to have copyright issues

Doing Freelance writing

Looking for Part Time work

For those that did not notice, yes, I have written original novels. Check out my novel to see public chapters and such.

thryth dot webs dot com


	33. Torrential Currents

Gauron considered the guards in his room, none of them had one of the two names that he'd managed to turn toward his ends. And there were four people in the room with him instead of the expected two.

"So, Mithril," he said idly. "The world's white knights finally caught up to little old me, huh? Guess that makes me the black knight."

"Shut up," one of the guards said. "You've had it, this is the last of these little jobs you'll be pulling."

"Don't talk to him," another guard said. "You heard the orders."

"If they didn't want you talking to me," Gauron said with a smile, "wouldn't they have put you in another room with a computer monitor to watch me?"

"He thinks he's going to trick us up so he can get free," a third guard said, a huge man maybe even larger than Gauron was. "Well, guess what, psycho, see this."

The man moved forward and pulled a fragmentation grenade out of his uniform and held out in front of Gauron's face. One hand on the grenade, the other with fingers looped through the pin.

"What the hell, Karlson!" the fourth guard shouted as the other three jumped to their feet. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm just proving a point here," Karlson said snappishly before turning about to look at Gauron. "You see this, freak?"

"I see it," Gauron said with a wide smile.

"Before you escape from here," the guard noted with a smirk. "I'd pull the pin on this baby and make sure nobody gets out of here."

"Really?" Gauron asked still smiling.

"Karlson, quit joking about with that thing," one of the guards said coming forward.

"Really," Karlson said.

And then Gauron through himself back in his chair, kicking his bound legs up between Karlson's own and into his groin. The man flinched in reaction as he lifted up off of his feet and, in the course of the reflex, the grenade and it's pin flew off in separate directions.

"Oh fuck! Catch it!"

The explosion followed scattered sharp points of metal all through out the room and into several bodies as they screamed out momentarily and then went silent.

A few seconds of motionlessness followed and then one of the bodies was pushed off the form of the man he'd fallen atop of and thus stopped all the sharpnel before it could strike me.

Gauron smirked as he worked to pull the handcuff keys off the belt of the dead guard and was soon free.

"Well, you kept that promise," he said with a smirk.

* * *

Sousuke was about to ask Kaname and Eija what they meant when an entirely different look came over first Eija's and then Kaname's face.

"What is it?" Sousuke asked.

"People just died," Eija said in a serious tone.

"She said it was violent," Kaname said, not having felt it herself but having been privy to Eija's immediate thoughts on the matter.

* * *

Gauron frowned as the call for general quarters went out before he could do more than get out of the door. Apparently, they'd been keeping watch on him closer than he thought, unless that was something else entirely.

He slipped out of the area of the cell and immediately pulled aside into the shadows of the wide passages at the sound of approaching feet. The men and women passed by him looking serious and bearing weapons.

There was no doubt about it, somehow they'd figured out he'd escaped.

Either a camera he hadn't noticed or, more likely, the presence of the psychics that Mithril seemed to have been making more use out of.

"I tell you, things are going to hell when the metas start proving useful," he muttered darkly.

He moved out into the hallway in the wake of the patrol and quietly made for the next corner and another shadow to move along. The submarine was huge and that was all to his advantage right now.

"Too bad the original plan is scuttled," he noted casually.

He passed into another room and found a set of lockers and uniforms where two men were quickly getting dressed and moving to join with the rest of the ship.

"Hello boys," Gauron said with a smile as he rose up the pistol he'd taken from one of his first guards.

Three shots later and they were both falling down to the deck, lifeless.

"All security patrols, please proceed to sections..." the voice of a young woman said over the intercom before naming the general area of the ship that Gauron was currently in. "Non-essential personnel please evacuate the area."

* * *

"I could be helping with capturing him," Eija said without looking up from the floor as she concentrated on the small circle of her own blood she'd put there.

Tessa frowned and shook her head in determination.

"Keep doing what you're doing, Miss Satomi," she said. "I know you have more skills than most, but this is the skill that no one else here has."

"I just wish I could track him directly," Eija noted.

"Yeah, but wouldn't he have to be dying?" Kaname asked.

"You know I really wish I had actually studied blood rites more right now," Eija said.

"Aren't you Goddess of Blood?" Tessa asked.

"Yesss," Eija noted in embarrassment. "But...further back, on the left. It was faint, they didn't die right away, but they are dying...there's an echo of something."

Tessa leaned over toward the intercom.

"Dr Goldberry to the bridge," she called out and then she waited to give Gauron a chance to move away from the wounded man. "Miss Satomi, please retrieve him."

Eija nodded and leaned forward into the small pool of blood, her upper body vanishing completely before it returned carrying a badly wounded soldier up onto the deck, much to the shock of those piloting the ship. Her Goddess marks were glowing faintly.

Immediately, Eija focused her attention on the injured man, slowing the blood flow and making it stay within the body and moving through its proper channels, ignoring the rents and disruptions that Gauron's bullet had made.

"Commander Mardukas," Tessa said, keeping herself from looking at the badly injured man in front of her. "I need you to personally collect and take a security detail somewhere."

"Might I ask where, Captain," he responded.

"Of course you can," Tessa said.

"What can I do help?" Kaname asked.

"Not much at the..." Tessa stopped and considered what was happening. "Eija do you have any of the paper you use for butterflies?"

"Yes," the Goddess said vaguely, almost in a sort of trance. "In my pocket."

The medics came and gasped as they leaned over to look into the wound and saw what looked like a vessel, but on closer inspection was simply a flow of blood through a place where the vein had been destroyed.

"We've got it from here," Dr. Goldberry told Eija as she started directing the medics to act and stop gawking.

Though she had to admit that she was more than a little impressed or disturbed herself.

Eija nodded and slid back out of the way, looking at the trace of the man's blood on her hand and remembering the splatter that she'd seen where he'd been shot.

"I have an idea," Eija noted.

* * *

Gauron ducked aside, backing up and turning into another hallway. As he did so, he looked down and saw the footprints he was leaving behind. They were absurdly clear, bloody footprints that led right to his position.

"All patrols, the target is reported to be leaving a trail of footprints," the young woman's voice spoke again. "Please keep an eye out for any sign of his presence, do not get separated from your teams. There have been casualties already."

Gauron frowned in thought and chuckled to himself.

"Clever," he said quietly as he checked himself for anything marked with blood and discarded it as he backed away.

There wasn't much besides the shoes, which he carefully removed and vanished again into the halls.

"Keep looking at me whoever you are," Gauron said as he was satisfied to find no blood following this time. "Maybe you'll eventually see the cancer and peg me down."

* * *

Eija narrowed her eyes as the sticky blood stopped moving. The guy had figured it out quickly.

"He slipped the spell," she said. "Must not have gotten much on him."

"Expected he would," Tessa said. "Did you get the message off, Chidori-san?"

"Yeah, but I don't see why you want me to do it this way instead over the radio," Kaname noted.

"We don't know whether or not Gauron has a radio," the Captain noted.

Though there was another reason.

* * *

Sergeant Danigan and Corporal Nguyen grimaced as the search continued. This wasn't according to plan, not at all. All it looked like was going to happen now was this Gauron freak was going to get captured and probably end up spilling the beans on them and who knows who else.

They traded a quiet look and turned the corner along with the rest of their patrol of soldiers, three others.

"Click," a voice said behind them as the feel of a cold gun muzzle touched the back of Danigan's skull and Nguyen saw another pointed toward him.

"Hey!" the other mercenaries shouted turning about and talking into his radio. "We've got the guy here!"

"Danigan, Nguyen," Gauron said. "Pleasure to see. Think you want to start fulfilling your part of the bargain? Or should I just pull the trigger?"

"What the hell is he talking about, Dan..." the speaker was cut silent with a burst of gunfire.

Nguyen immediately followed up, cursing the situation.

"Very good, gentlemen," Gauron said. "And make sure to smile for the audience."

He tossed a radio out in front of them after putting away one gun.

"All hands, I believe you just heard what I did," the young woman said. "Let's not let that go past."

"Damn you, bastard," Danigan snapped. "How are we supposed to get control of the submarine now?"

"We don't," Gauron said casually. "We scuttle it."

The two stared at him in shock.

"Are you crazy?" Nguyen demanded.

"I believe this submarine is equipped with a lot of fancy toys," Gauron said. "Including escape craft, some of which are near the reactor...so, I think that'll work."

"But the reactor!" Danigan protested.

"Let's get started moving," Gauron said.

"All non-essential personnel leave the following sections," Tessa's voice called out. "Security push into those sections now."

"Damn little spoiled girl,"

* * *

"Commander Mardukas," Tessa said into the radio calmly. "Are you ready?"

"In place, Captain," Mardukas added.

"Good," Tessa said with a smile.

"Gauron's not doing the killing anymore," Eija said.

"What?" Kaname said. "How do you know?"

"I cannot really explain it very well, there's an echo when he kills that was not on the last death," the Goddess said with a frown.

"That's what I thought," Tessa noted calmly before she turned to the person to person radio again. "Urzu-7, be ready."

"I am ready, Captain," Sousuke's voice responded.

Tessa felt something in the back of her mind that said Naiki was wanting something, but she needed all her attention on the situation right now.

"Hey, that..." Kaname said. "Is that what it feels like when Eija and I talk to you? Is that Naiki?"

"I'm sorry, Miss Chidori, but we have other things to worry about," Tessa said politely.

Naiki's problem could come later.

She frowned then and clenched her fist tighter, wishing people evacuated as quickly and completely as she wished they could.

* * *

Danigan glanced back over his shoulder and saw Gauron there, smiling his normal psychotic smile and grimaced. They were going through with this...this insanity?

But he, they, didn't really have a choice.

If they left the Danaan running, they'd just be chased down and destroyed before they could get anywhere. And if they didn't go along with this, they'd be caught and killed, if Gauron didn't do it first.

It was a couple of minutes of dodging security, and finding it lighter than he would have expected, and glancing back less and less often. Finally, they made the final turn into the reactor bay and pushed forward...

Only to hear an array of firearms being readied from every conceivable location and finding Commander Mardukas standing behind a team of soldiers, all staring with undisguised rage at the two traitorous SRTs.

And Gauron was not behind them.

"This is Mardukas," the Commander said. "The traitors are in hand, Captain."

"Message received, Commander," Tessa said.

* * *

Gauron smiled to himself as he considered that by now his decoy should have been caught up in Testarossa's stratagem. The girl was a bit clever at this sort of thing. But the effort to herd him had been a bit obvious for a long campaigner like himself.

And it had drawn off all of Gauron's pursuit to one place so that he only had to get through a thin layer and be out where he had a free range of the sub.

Of course, there'd be an army and a half of guards leading up to the bridge, but that's not where he was going.

He walked slowly and calmly, as if he belonged and approached the great bays of the AS holds with a mixture of irritation and triumph.

It was the last inning and he was about to pull off a...

He turned into the launch bay and found Kashim staring there ahead of them in the middle of the room, waiting for the door to open.

"Heh, how about that," Gauron said, finding his weapon pointed out of reach.

"Urzu-7, execute," Tessa said over the intercom in a cold, steeled voice.

"Affirmative," Sousuke noted.

The impact of the bullets tore into Gauron as he tried bring his gun to bare. But instead, found himself toppling backward to the ground and feeling the life's blood leaving his body.

The sound of Sousuke's Sagara's boots as he walked across the empty launch deck and kicked away Gauron's weapon echoed dully through the psychopath's mind as the face of the perfect killer he'd admired so long ago came into his view.

"Well, I was right, Kashim," he said. "You were the perfect one to kill me after all."

Sousuke lifted his gun up and pointed down toward Gauron's head.

"Don't call me that," he said simply.

But the devil wasn't finished with Gauron yet.

"All hands! Brace for impact!" Tessa shouted desperately into the intercom.

In the moment of distraction, Gauron kicked Sousuke's feet out from under him and then each of them was sliding across the titling deck wildly.

* * *

The Danaan came to an even keel swiftly, twisting away from the thing that had just suddenly appeared, growing out of nothing in an instant. Between the giant form and the Danaan was one tiny speck of a human form.

Naiki, Demoness of Torrent, facing something more than ten times her own size.

* * *

In the control room, mortals and immortals alike were righting themselves and looking to the video read outs to see what it was they were dealing with and gaping.

_I tried to tell you,_ Naiki sent over their link.

"Oh, crap, that's Poseidon, isn't it?" Kaname asked humbly.

* * *

Kyoko took out a peach with a slice cut out of it and cut off another piece to hand over to Naiki.

"Peach?" she asked.

"Umm, thanks," Naiki said, blushing lightly as she took the piece of fruit and started to eat it.

Each succulent morsel seemed to revitalize her magically. It was wonderful and the romantic part of Naiki wondered if it was because Kyoko had given it to her.

"You're always in my pictures you know," Kyoko said. "I kind of like that. It's fun."

"Really?" Naiki asked, flushing brightly.

"Yeah, but you're always alone," Kyoko said smiling brightly toward the other girl, "I'd like to see you in one of my pictures with someone sometime."

"Who'd take the picture?" Naiki asked playfully.

"I would, silly," Kyoko said. "It'll be one of my pictures after all."

Naiki sighed and hung her head.

"Satomi," a voice called from inside the house. "Think you and your friend can get back in here? We need to get back to seeing what sort of training you're fit for."

Naiki stood up then, stretched out and blinked a bit at seeing that she was feeling a lot better somehow, but shrugged it off. Probably she just wasn't as hurt as she had thought.

Smiling and bringing out her camera, Kyoko followed.

"Mind if I take pictures?" she asked the woman with the giant spatula.

"Nah, go ahead," Ukyou noted with a shrug as she watched Naiki stretching.

The woman looked up toward the faces of the other adults in the building and frowned curiously. The same thought was moving through their minds, maybe demons had different enough anatomies that the signs of pain were different. The question was on all of their faces, because the girl didn't look nearly as bad as they had first thought.

"How are you feeling then, Sugar?" Ukyou asked.

"I feel a lot better actually," Naiki said. "The power of true...friendship?"

"What would you mean by that?" Konatsu asked.

"I gave her a slice of a peach," Kyoko said with a shrug.

Said peach had been returned to her bag again and her camera was in hand.

"Well, maybe," Mousse noted. "Her family was always one of quick healing."

"Okay, mother wants you practicing defense," Ukyou said, stretching out her shoulder. "So we're going to start with a little warm-up called Javelins."

"Javelins?" Naiki asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Uh huh," Ukyou said. "See the way this works is stuff gets thrown at you, you catch it and throw it back. Anytime you get hit or fail to catch something, whoever threw that gets a point. And the same when you manage to hit us or we miss catching something."

"That doesn't sound so hard," Naiki noted.

"One more thing," Mousse noted. "You will not be allowed to move your feet for this exercise."

"What?" the demoness said. "How about shifting stances?"

"No," Konatsu said. "You stay in the same spot and catch what we throw."

"All right," Naiki said simply, uncertain of how this constituted practice. "I don't see how this helps me learn how to defend myself better."

They walked outside and Naiki took her position in the middle of the yard outside as three of the best weapons users Ranma had know as a teenager took in her stance and readied their weapons.

In this case, their normal arsenal had been replaced with several baskets of tennis balls. Over the tennis balls had been dumped bags of sharply colored dust that clung to cloth viciously.

"Everybody ready?" Ukyou asked.

"Why's this called javelins, by the way?" Naiki asked.

"That's what the original game used," Konatsu explained simple. "Ukyou just calls it that regardless of what she uses."

Kyoko's camera clicked from the side.

"All right, let's get on with this already," Naiki said.

Naiki caught the first round of tennis balls easily enough, sending them back, but it quickly became apparent that the three adults were ramping up the pace with each ball thrown. First one ball, then another got past Naiki as the speed and volume of balls in the air increased. Every time Naiki tried to return one of the balls, another one came in and struck her.

It was only about a minute in that Naiki forgot to keep her position and shifted her feet aside.

"And she's out," Ukyou said. "And it looks like you had...fifty points scored on you? Does that sound right, Konatsu?"

"That's a minimum," the ninja noted.

Mousse briefly thought about considering whether or not Ryouga was the kid's real father, but thought better of it when he remembered the situations of the girl's birth.

"I would have thought your mother would teach you better speed training than that," Mousse noted eventually.

"Hey!" Naiki snapped. "Okaasan taught me a bunch of stuff!"

"Then you're just not using it?" Mousse asked calmly.

Kyoko's camera went click and the image of Naiki covered head to toe in colored dust was immortalized.

"Let's try this again," Ukyou said, smirking and half laughing.

They were interrupted from that by the sound of clapping from the building, drawing all sets of eyes there and finding a tall, olive skinned man with a long, curly dark beard and dressed in a fine suit. His scent drifted over the air into Naiki's nostrils and she growled angirly, moving forward to face him directly.

Three blue marks adorned his face.

"You!" she snapped angrily. "You're going to die!"

"Whoa!" Ukyou said, moving around to block Naiki. "Who is this?"

"I'm her father, of course," Poseidon said.

"You str noy my father!" Naiki snapped angrily, pushing past Ukyou. "I'm got rid of all that crap when I went to Nifelheim."

"If you want to get technical," Poseidon said, "you purged your human side. Which means you dropped your relationship to the one you call your mother, but my blood will always be a part of you."

Nsiki shrieked out angrily and shifted forward in what seemed to be just a paroxysm of sheer rage, but as she slipped her hands out into a yamasenken move, she didn't let the vacuum blade fly out but kept it on hand as she struck outward at Poseidon.

The God stepped forward and caught one of Naiki's hands, twisting the girl around and throwing her into the wall of the building.

"Is that all you really have?" Poseidon asked. "Was the raw power you showed in my prison the best you could do? Do you have no skill."

A chain came out of nowhere then, wrapping around the God's arm and pulling backwards. Bracing himself, he was still shifted backwards as Naiki pulled herself up from where she was thrown.

Mousse grunted as the motion of the God was stopped and then he found himself being pulled forward into the air. Grimacing, he moved into a flip, drawing forth a pair of scimitars even as he saw a volley of shuriken and spatulas peppering the enemy.

He landed and slashed down at the God, following it up with another slashing scimitar from the other hand. The God grunted and twisted the chain about in his hands to slam it up into Mousse's swords and pushing him back.

Ukyou came in almost immediately, side by side with Konatsu. They moved almost perfectly, the chef's large weapon and wide slashes obscuring the battlefield so that the ninja could dart about and strike into vulnerable areas which Poseidon only barely blocked.

Mousse came back then and added a third element to the fight.

"This is between my daughter and I!" Poseidon shouted angrily.

A torrent of raw power whipped outward, blowing the three martial artists away in different directions as Naiki came in behind him and slammed her foot into the small of his back.

Her mind was racing. She'd been part of the effort to kill Hecate, but that had been so much a group effort with Mao's plan. At the moment, Naiki was short about ten soldiers, six demons, two Gods, and whatever Mao was now.

However, she did apparently have an extra martial artist and this guy wasn't sporting a whole bunch of magical weapons.

Poseidon rolled forward and up to his feet, giving a supremely disappointed look to his face.

"You can do better than this," he said.

"Get out of the way!" Naiki shouted as she spun into the dance of the Yamasenken and sent a barrage of vacuum blades forward against her enemy.

Poseidon's face actually lit up at this.

"That's right, that's showing power," he encouraged her as he moved to dodge the attacks as best as possible.

He glanced aside at where several of the blades had come close enough to cut him and left at the least bruises. The smile on his face broadened under the beard.

And then the frown returned.

Ukyou barely ducked in time as the God lashed out with a whip of water that somehow pulled together into the form of a trident with sharp points. The weapon was twisted about come down into her chest when the chef was pulled out of harm's way by a chain.

Konatsu leapt into the gap, striking with his ninja-to even as Naiki closed the distance from the other direction.

The Earthshaker, Poseidon frowned and stepped his foot hard into the ground, sending a massive tremor through the ground around him and outward, but it failed to knock Konatsu off balance.

The ninja simply leaped into the air at the first sign of the problem and came down with his blade, barely missing the sea god's form. Above him, Naiki jumped over his back and thrust downward with a snake fist driving downward into Poseidon's chest.

Poseidon grimaced angrily and toppled backward briefly, but not before grabbing ahold of Naiki's wrist and propelling her in a highly nonaerodynamic way into the forms of Ukyou, who dodged aside, and Mousse, who didn't, before following her and leaving the ninja to do ninja things.

Mousse and Naiki extricated themselves from each other as Ukyou and Konatsu stepped up to buy time for them to ready themselves.

"Why do you let these mortals interfere?" Poseidon demanded as he pushed the martial artists outward into the street. "They're ants."

The God of the Sea stepped forward as he grew visibly in size and pushed out with a hand that was quickly becoming the size of a table. Ukyou and Konatsu dodged around it.

"And we thought the problem would be the demon kid?" Ukyou shouted bitterly.

People were screaming in the streets as they first noticed the giant figure stride forward, face blazing angry.

"This is a private test of valor, this has nothing to do with mortals!" he shouted, wiping his arm across the air.

As he did so, water streamed up from all over and scythed across the scene, cutting into several cars, slicing deep into concrete and demolishing some buildings.

"What the hell is that?" Mousse demanded.

"Poseidon," Naiki hissed as she watched water rising up from where the first stream of water had cut the water mains open.

"Poseidon! The Poseidon?" Mousse shouted.

"The demon that brought her buy had recommendations from Persephone and you're surprised at that?" Konatsu noted.

"I can't remember every minor God in some foreign pantheon!" Mousse responded.

"How the hell did he get so big?" Naiki wondered.

The four were pushed back as the God continued to rearm himself and recover the water he'd already used, and continued to grow in size. They leaped up over strikes of slashing or crushing water, sometimes the elder martial artists moved to pull Naiki aside.

Behind them, the civilians were still fleeing as they first came to see what was coming down the street.

A blast of water almost caught Ukyou in midleap and unable to pull out of the way, but at the last minute simply dropped into nothing and was pulled back towards the God of the Ocean.

"How dare you stop my weapon!" Poseidon demanded.

"I am the Demoness of Torrent, asshole!" Naiki shouted out. "This whole fight is my Realm!"

The huge water-formed trident smashed downward towards Naiki, who outstretched her hand and stood there as the trident disintegrated progressively more.

It was when the massive fist holding the trident came into view that she realized that she'd made a mistake. The fist itself wasn't a torrent.

A wide spatula whipped about and pulled her out of the way as the fist smashed into the ground, setting the start of a larger earthquake than the earlier one.

"Watch it, Sugar," Ukyou said. "Ranma wouldn't like us to lose you."

That said, Ukyou rushed in past Poseidon's massive hand, twisting her spatula so the sharp edge was readied and whipping into the back of the God's ankles as she passed underneath him.

"You mortal flea!" Poseidon roared angrily. "You dare do this to your superiors!"

His answer was a wave of weapons launched out by the other two masters on either side of Naiki as the demoness caught her breath.

The God reached downward with his massive hand to flick Naiki and the two humans around her away. Konatsu pulled Naiki aside and rolled clear as Mousse rolled under the hand and slashed upward with his scimitars, cutting a deep scythe into the giant's hand, a cut that was completed by a giant spatula, leaving the hand tumbling down to the ground and bursting into an eruption of mana that knocked both of the martial artists high into the air.

"Ukyou!" Konatsu shouted as he saw the enraged God slash outward with his severed stump, as if to drive the point home how little he cared for their action.

There was a sound of an breath sharply pushed out as Ukyou was catapulted backward into the side of a building, through a window.

Mousse landed under his own control, but off balance and failed to be ready when another wash of water seared through the rooftop he landed on, sending the Amazon toppling downward in a pile of rubble before he could get enough of a footing to avoid it.

Konatsu leaped up to the hole Ukyou had been tossed through, and was caught up in a roar of water crashing down over him in wave that suddenly cut around him and carried him down to the ground, not gently, but not lethally either.

"This is why you do not deal with these beings," Poseidon said, stepping forward angrily as he shrank down into his normal size, hand regrowing as he shrank. "They sap your strength to help them. You can't face me now, and you've wasted all your power in futile attempts to save these pathetic mortals' lives."

"Yeah, well I'm not done yet," Naiki said wearily as she took a shaky stance.

"Yes, you are, daughter," Poseidon said bitterly. "This is over now."

He reared back his hand, forming a trident again and got ready to strike.

"No!" a new voice called out as a small form jumped out in front of Naiki and spread her arms out. "Leave her alone!"

Poseidon grimaced and lowered his trident irritably.

"Get out of the way, mortal, this _Demon_ and I have something to finish," he said.

"Naiki is my friend," Kyoko said nervously, reaching into her bag and pulling out a sliced peach. "Her fight is my fight!"

"Are you aware of what she is, mortal?" Poseidon asked.

"She's a Demon, her sister's a Goddess, her brother and mother are human," Kyoko shouted. "And they're all nice people that don't deserve to be hurt like this! If she's really you're daughter, you wouldn't do this."

"Kyoko, get out of here," Naiki said wearily. "What are doing here?"

"I had to give you this," Kyoko said, handing over the peach.

Before Naiki could take it, and try to push the other girl into running, Poseidon's arm swept into her while the girl wasn't looking and sent her flying across the scene of the fight as Naiki watched helpless.

Kyoko shrieked as she hit a concrete fence and stayed there, moving only weakly.

Poseidon barely paid Kyoko any attention as he continued to move forward towards Naiki. When the demoness dashed aside, not giving him another look and came to the side of the other girl, he cursed angrily and started to grow again.

Naiki was relieved to find Kyoko alive as she came to the girl's side. Her first aid mastery wasn't anything like Eija's, even accounting for healing spells, and she could tell there were serious injuries to her friend, who still held the peach.

"Eat it all, Naiki," Kyoko whispered painfully.

"Why..."

"It's magic," Kyoko said.

"Quit playing games, daughter," Poseidon said. "It's time to end this so I can get on to serious matters. Or do you have any last words to say."

Naiki, back to Poseidon, wiped at her mouth.

"Violent..."

She rose to one knee up from the ground.

"...tumultuous..."

The Demoness rose her other foot.

"...overwhelming..."

The martial artist straightened her back.

"...flow."

She cracked her knuckles.

"And what torrent are you using this time?" Poseidon demanded in disgust as he thrust his trident forward negligently.

And found it stopped cold in his biological daughter's hand, her demon marks glowing so brightly he'd have almost thought she was a category 1 demon that had dropped her limiters.

"Me."

Naiki said in answer to his question before crushing the trident in one hand and slashing a kick up into Poseidon's groin which sent the God rocketing back down the street that he had pushed Naiki and the other three upwards.

Naiki was following immediately behind spinning in air to slash down at Poseidon with a series of vacuum blade arcs even before she landed by his side and thrust both her hands upward into his chest, doubling him over those same hands which thrust upward into the God's chin and tossed him back, tumbling down the hill of the street.

"Bakusai Tenketsu Wave!" Naiki shouted, thrusting both her hands down into the ground and sending a wave of exploding asphalt to follow Poseidon to the street below.

As she straightened, she thrust her foot into the ground and shouted, watching as a crack ripped open in the surface of the road, sending up showers of exploding gas and tumbling cars that cascaded down the hilly slope toward Poseidon.

Someone might have suggested a bad ass walk forward through the devastation at this point, but slowing down never entered Naiki's mind as she ran down through the fire, steam and debris, pulling it down behind her with a screaming war cry.

She leaped upward as her enemy grew upward again into giant size, seeking to catch her in the air with a giant fist.

A fist that was shredded as Naiki let her vacuum blades lead her in to destroy the construct that Poseidon had formed around himself again. Behind her the came the tons of metal and rock from the various parts of the scenery which Poseidon had destroyed and Naiki now pulled into her sway.

Poseidon was carried down under waves and had to leap away, an uncomfortable feeling in his breast as he backed away from the monster that his daughter had seemingly become for no reason.

Only for the injury of some mortal. Why would these primitives be so important to his progeny, after leaving them behind at least.

And then he thought he caught a flash of another presence in the back of his daughter's mind.

A human was sharing Naiki's thoughts?

"I see where your confusion comes now," Poseidon said grimacing as he had to retreat again. "This human in your mind weakens you, makes you think strange things about our place in this world. I'll correct that right now!"

"Correc...no you don't!" Naiki shouted, directing a part of her mind away from the fight towards Tessa.

_Tessa! Open your walls! Poseidon's coming for you!_

The energy the peach had given her was fading away now and Poseidon was looking toward a large puddle of water and leaping for it.

Naiki leaped out with him, grabbing on and diving into the water along with him only to appear far out into the Pacific Ocean with a massive submarine turning just inches away from bowling her over and plowing into Poseidon.

_I tried to tell you!_ she sent to the sub captain.

_Let's take care of the problem first,_ Tessa noted quickly.

"Now, I shall fix this error in your thinking, daughter," Poseidon roared through the waters.

* * *

Ukyou dropped cautiously to street level and limped over to see how bad Kyoko was, looking off toward the new trail of devastation that Naiki had trailed in her pursuit.

"What the hell got into her?" she wondered.

"Peaches," Kyoko supplied.

* * *

Tessa stood up as soon as the Danaan righted, and almost tripped herself in the rush as she stared at the screen and listened to Naiki in her head.

"Kaname, there's something I need you to do," Tessa said.

"There's something I can do for this?" Kaname asked. "He's not even on the ship."

"I need you to replace the AI for a little bit," the captain said quickly. "Show her the way and how to hook up, and take three of the guards outside with you. No telling whether or not our prisoners escaped again in that."

"I could go with her..." Eija started to say.

"Poseidon is bleeding, Miss Satomi," Tessa said.

"Hull pressure increasing!" one of the techs declared.

"Go!" Tessa commanded firmly to Kaname and the tech.

Kaname barely hesitated, but followed quickly enough, confused over what exactly she'd be expected to do.

_Naiki, I need the pressure kept off my ship._

_Yeah, I've gotten very good at that the last couple of minutes._

"Hull pressure slacking off," the previous tech noted.

"Keep us moving!" Tessa said, "Vary speed and direction, maintain equilibrium as best you can. Sonar, I want tracking on the pockets of heavy pressure, get started now!"

Eija looked out through the camera as the sub turned about their enemy and noted the small rivelet's of red leaking out into the water.

"Miss Satomi," Tessa said. "If you'd do me the favor of bleeding our unwanted visitor."

* * *

Poseidon blinked a moment as he felt a noticeable drain on his endurance and felt a spark of mana lashing out towards, dark and filled with the touch of death and the weak-touch of a soft-hearted soul.

"Hecate's girl," he thought as his form enlongated and shifted in shape. "Another of these degenerate young Gods and Demons.

All around him, the wounds he'd suffered were pushing themselves open even as he concentrated on pushing water in to close them and growing large enough to make them of minimal concern to him.

Slowly his form shifted into something massive and vaguely whale like, but with massive fins that still ended in distinct digits and parted feet that pushed him monstrously through the water.

Angrily, he opened his mouth and took in a massive surge of water before releasing it again into directed wave that should have torn the mortal craft into tiny pieces.

* * *

"Incoming pressure wave!" the sonar operator called out.

The wave struck into them and the deck titled sideways again sending Tessa sprawling to the side and slamming into one of the walls hard.

Eija meanwhile stood up with the shifting deck, leaned against the change in center of gravity and then leaned back again as the ship managed to right itself before shifting back into a kneeling meditative position, hands staying poised in front of her.

* * *

Elsewhere in the hallways, Kaname was running as quickly as she dared when the walls once again became floors and ceilings and both she and her escort were pulled off of their feet as the sub tried to right itself up.

They'd been about to take a set of stairs down to a lower deck when the boat heaved and one of the three soldiers with her tripped and started to fall off the banister heading for a long, bouncing fall in the shifting sub.

Kaname reached out reflexively to grab the man's harness with both arms and locked her legs against the banister. She wouldn't have held had the other two soldiers not taken the opportunity she'd provided and grabbed their comrade to pull him back.

"Thanks Miss Chidori," the soldier said as the sub started to right itself again.

"No problem, protecting people that can kick my ass is what I'm here for," Kaname said irritably.

* * *

"Tessa, do you ne…" Eija started to say, looking toward the way the Captain was holding her right arm.

"Keep on him!" Tessa declared standing up herself and holding her arm as she walked up into the front of the command room.

"Captain, you should sit down," a tech noted. "If there's another strike and you fall again."

"Then I stand back up," Tessa said firmly. "He wants to face the Danaan in her ocean, he'll find her Captain on her feet."

"Why the hell are we in one piece?" the sonar tech said.

"Naiki's out there," the Captain explained.

* * *

Naiki raced to the sub and kept above it, forcing a path through the thickening pressure for the sub as she watched Poseidon shift around in pursuit and reaching out with his over sized hand to apparently attempt to grab and crushing it physically rather than just with water pressure.

As he did so, Naiki noticed the small trails of blood coming off the massive construct the God had made of himself. It's smell filled the entire ocean in the area, pouring out of his body.

"Heh, Eija's here," Naiki said. "And I think I've got another thing I can do with that."

As she swam parallel to the Danaan, like a remora alongside a shark, Naiki let another thought empowered by pishogue flow out into the deep around her. A thought that directed the scent of that bled outward to deliver a message.

Poseidon reached out to grip closed one of his wounds when they first showed up, flowing around the danaan and Naiki, ignoring them as they keyed in on the source of the sweet scent of the bleeding god.

Naiki smiled as hundreds and thousands of sharks swarmed past her to attack Poseidon like over sized piranha.

And the kicker of the lot of them came as a vast dark shape rose out of the untracked depths and swum up beside the Danaan purposefully, seeming to roll one black eye to take it in curiously before pressing onward in the attack.

* * *

"Ma'am, is that?" one of the techs asked, gaping at the monitor along with everybody else.

"Megalodon charchadon," Tessa said, mouth agape. "Do we have a targeting solution?"

"No, not with the way we're moving," the tech said.

"Rig something," Tessa said. "Try a snap shot."

Eija stood up from her kneeing position and wiped at the sweat on her forehead.

* * *

Kaname was rushed through the ship and to a strange room that only held a sensory deprivation tube like the one she had been held prisoner in sometime ago.

"Okay, I'm going to need you to get in that and...resonate," the tech said. "I'll start the procedures out here."

The entire sub shook and, in some places, groaned.

"I don't think we have much time," the tech said.

Kaname nodded and, with a trace of reluctance stepped into the tank.

Kaname's eyes closed and suddenly, she was floating the water and calm in every way. She could see Gauron and Sousuke gearing up for their fight in the launch bay and watch the play of ocean battle outside the Danaan, with the sub moving erratically and trying still to get a targeting lock on Poseidon.

Her body was in pain all over. It was cracked and even leaking in places. Nothing that couldn't be handled, but it was getting worse. Something kept trying to grab her and squeeze her and she didn't like that.

And she felt something powerful just within reach of her hand, but first she had to go to her friends.

* * *

Sousuke stood up and held his weapon and let go of the hand rail as the sub righted itself again. He looked out into the hold and saw the trail of blood that Gauron had left. It wasn't enough given how many bullets Sousuke had poured into him. He'd been wearing some sort of body armor.

"Sousuke," Kaname's voice behind him said and he whirled to find her looking somewhat translucent and a bit distracted.

"Chidori," Sousuke said in a hushed whisper, "what are you doing here?"

"I'm in the ship," Kaname said. "Using this is hard, not sure how I'm doing it. Got to get to it. Poseidon is in the ocean. Gauron is in the Danaan."

"Poseidon?" Sousuke repeated. "Is that what's here?"

"Gauron is more dangerous," Kaname said. "I didn't know that before, but I can…feel him in the ship now. He's diseased, he wants to die in glory and violence, hit a home run so hard that everyone stops playing the game because it can never be topped. This ship and everyone in it is the perfect ball to hit out of the park with him."

The ship shook then though Kaname's image held steady in place with just a shiver of what looked like pain.

"I have to go help Eija," she said. "Stop him, Sousuke. And don't answer his taunts. He wants fans. He wants an audience. He wants this to be about him."

She stopped and took a breath, or at least her image did.

"Make it about us."

And then her image faded away.

* * *

Something snaked out of the gloom and latched onto the side of the massive shark, halting it just long enough for another tentacle to reach up and grab it again.

Grimacing, Naiki was about to go down and tear into the squid or whatever stopping her shark cold, when a burst of air heralded the sudden entrance of a guided torpedo into the water.

_Damn it_ Tessa snapped _not good enough!_

Noting that the missile was going to go far off course, Naiki bent herself toward altering it's path a little, down along the route of the tentacles holding the struggling shark still.

The explosion pushed shark and Naiki up into the water, and stunned it, but at least it was free.

However, all about, Naiki looked and saw the sharks she had called in entered dozens of their own battles all over the place against dolphins, cuttlefish, squid, whales and numerous other things besides.

"You bring them up in rebellion, daughter," Poseidon roared though he had to catch his breath immediately afterward. "They will pay the price."

"Blowhard," Naiki snapped back angrily as a swarm of cuttlefish pulled around her and the megalodon.

One gripped at her leg and tried to pull her off down into the depths away from the shark. Or, worse, where the shark might decide she was a tidbit. Angrily she dipped into the form a demon remembered, though not to the extremity that Poseidon had into his.

Scales traveled up her body and she ripped her foot up, cutting through the water and into the cuttlefish and then slicing through the water fast enough to forge a small fan of vacuum blades that didn't last much longer than it took for the cuttlefish to be cleared from around the shark as it slammed into Poseidon again.

One of Poseidon's massive fins whipped forward into the megalodon and pushed it off as the shark pulled some of the skin away. It further ripped away into the deep as the mana-flesh exploded and Naiki had to fight to get herself back into position to shape the water currents to guide it back around again for another attack.

She slipped back into her true form, conserving her strength and attention on just the torrents she was shaping.

* * *

_Why do you fight with this Demon and these mortals against, neophyte?_ A deep rumbling voice spoke in Eija's mind.

_That is not a question that can be answered if you have to ask it,_ Eija responded.

_You think you know more than me? _Poseidon roared in her mind.

_How are you in my mind? _Eija demanded. _You aren't dead and I'm not linked with you._

_You are attacking my life force directly and you wonder that I can speak to you?_ Poseidon responded with angry laughter. _You don't deserve to be a part of my species. Why did you abandon your human blood if you care so much for these things._

_Abandon my…_ Eija blinked.

_You and my daughter both threw aside the blood of your human parent for the true power of the Immortals,_ Posiedon explained. _If you cared so much for humanity and your family, why cut yourself off from it._

_The hell she did! _Kaname's voice sniped in. _Eija didn't abandon humanity. She protected me!_

_Another of these mortals intruding on the mind of the Gods, _Poseidon's voice roared. _When this toy of yours is destroyed, it'll be a pleasure cleanse this taint from the Yggdrasil network._

_Kaname don't get in to this,_ Eija said.

_He's distracting you, Eija,_ Kaname said quickly. _The idiot's realized that he tried to rob a gun store packed with the cops and now he's trying to bluff his way out. _

_I do not bluff little mortal, you and your friends need a bit of the lessons I gave Odysseus._

It was strange, but Eija seemed to feel Kaname's mental presence pushing past hers and rushing at Poseidon's.

_Odysseus was a guy with a boat, a sword and a lot of smarts and he still escaped your wrath for ten years. You're trying to take out Tessa now, and she's got a lot more than that._

_And what might that be?_

_Us._

The Whispers and Songs, the collective unconscious of both Gods and Humans, seemed to pull into the mindscape around them as a particular sequence of codes and symbols filtered in as the three figures turned visible instead of just being a collection of thoughts.

Poseidon stood across from the black and white spirit forms of Kaname and Eija, a blue-green shape of spirit and power that seemed almost twice the size of either girl though not both. And his image rushed forward at the two girls as various codes coalesced in front of them. The code of the spell forcing his wounds to bleed rushing out from Eija and tearing into him piece by piece.

He was distracted between the fight with the sharks and Naiki as well as trying to nail down the ship that his daughter was protecting, but he felt like he could handle two young spirits, one of them a mortal. It didn't require more than half a thought on his part to simply hurl them out of the way.

Which is why he was surprised when his rush was interrupted with a jarring smash from a collection of white and golden codes and symbols in the mortal's hands. The weapon formed was strange, and seemed to like a paper fan folded several times over. It didn't so much hurt as just stunned him with the sheer ridiculousness of it, especially as she smacked him back again with the mental harisen.

Poseidon growled irritably, stepping back, trying to formulate a response when she smacked him again upside the head.

_You dare to…_

And she didn't let him finish but just whacked him again and was in the process of swinging again when she was interrupted and Eija stepped forward, taking the harisen into hand herself. Immediately she recognized it as the virus that had attacked her not too long ago and which Kaname had altered, and apparently had kept in mind and altered again.

_Thank you, Kaname,_ Eija said as the bleeding spell wrapped around the harisen and squeezed it tight, stretching it out into a long, thin bladed jian. _I can handle this from here._

_Don't let distract you, remember, Buzzing of Hornets is your family technique,_ Kaname encouraged as her projection faded away to focus her attention on her main task.

She let herself back away and fall into a whirl of Whispered codes and numbers that attached to her and fled out, bringing to her knowledge and awareness which partially poured into Eija as well. Both girls' spirits started to fill and Eija felt, for a moment, that she probably could make her projection as large as Poseidon's…but decided against it.

Let him waste energy on impressing her.

* * *

"Don't every worry. Everything will be happy!"

Kaname's face popped up on screen briefly before it faded away.

"All right, here we go," Tessa said calmly, she turned to the intercom. "All hands, prepare for some extreme maneuvering."

Now she just had to hope the Kaname understood what it was Tessa wanted as she described it.

* * *

Naiki's swarm of sharks enjoyed only a short-lived success as Poseidon roared and pushed them back with a wave of water pressure lashed out from his mouth again that dispersed the swarm, killing some and stunning others. Only the megalodon, Naiki grabbed onto its massive fin managed to push against the wave and get in to tear out a chunk of the God's massive form.

It shook as the mana-crafted flesh exploded again slicing into Naiki's skin where shrapnel passed by, but this time the water dampened it and the megalodon turned about for another attack on Poseidon. Naiki glaring brilliantly from atop the creature and looking toward the other sharks she had called to the area.

Some were recovering and circling out at a distance, watching the megalodon taking on this thing that dwarfed even it.

The blood was still trailing out of his wounds in an ever increasing amount and as she directed her shark with a torrential nudge here or there in the currents of the water, Naiki smiled broadly and opted to give her sister and even more direct hand.

The leviathan Poseidon pushed in again to head for the sub and taking a breath to unleash another blast of water out at it. And then he stopped, as one of his energies burst out in an explosion of blood and tissue that brought the creature whirling about to stare at Naiki gripping the dorsal fin of the megalodon and staring at him with a wild sharp-toothed look.

"Violent, tumultuous, overwhelming flow!" she shouted into the water, knowing Poseidon would understand clearly.

The great monster that was a transformed creature shrieked outward bowling toward Naiki and her shark and pushing them end over end out into the depths even as the small sharks again flooded over the tide of red blood that had been blown out of the leviathan's side.

And a torpedo rushed past the megalodon only barely being struck aside by a burst of water pressure.

* * *

Eija ducked under Poseidon's trident, swiping up her virus-Jian as she came in under his reach. The tendrils of her spell ripped outward, tearing strips of her enemy apart each time she swung her sword, even apart from slashing it directly at her enemy.

But he was not helpless or unskilled despite his incredulous inability to comprehend Kaname's attack on him earlier.

Eija felt a blast of focused power lift her off what she had thought of as her feet and bring her slam down painfully dozens of feet away. The wiry tendrils growing out of the blade of her spell ripped away from Poseidon one by one until they were whipping about her waiting to latch back onto her enemy.

But, she felt herself fading back away out of the soulscape, almost too tired to hold it.

* * *

Tessa watched as Eija dropped to one knee, panting heavily and goddess marks still glowing as she continued to try to bleed the massive form of the God.

"Miss Satomi?" Tessa said, "Are you okay?"

"There's a lot of blood," Eija noted, swallowing. "But he's not going down easy. I don't think I could do this alone."

"Good thing you're not alone then," Tessa said. "How are we doing?"

"It's been 30 seconds since the last time we neared theorized cataclysmic hull pressure, Captain," a tech said.

"Good, you're making progress then, Miss Satomi," Tessa said. "Keep it up."

Eija nodded and forced herself back into the mindscape.

* * *

The Goddess of Blood rose up again from where she'd disappeared before and looked to see Poseidon starting to try to pull away from this to focus all his attention on Naiki and the Danaan.

_Poseidon,_ she called out calmly.

Her sword raised in her hand over her head, holding out the other with two fingers forward.

_We are not finished yet. And, as you said, this soulscape is here because I am attacking, you don't get to leave if I don't want you to._

_So be it, neophyte,_

* * *

Gauron around, grimacing as he shrugged off the armor he had been wearing, something stripped from one of the soldiers he'd killed. It had stopped most of the bullets, but even the ones it had stopped and just about shattered his ribs. He'd been just about completely helpless when Sousuke had been about to obliterate his head, but he was at least partially mobile now.

Somewhere in the room, Sousuke was up and moving too, and with much less in the way of injury, Gauron was certain.

"Well, Kashim," he called out. "Your little lavender princess really pulled one over on me, if wasn't for that last minute emergency, I think you would have actually killed me."

The sub groaned around them.

"Uh oh, something tells me that's part of what we moved to avoid," Gauron noted with a laugh.

He crept over to his AS, the Venom, keeping his eyes open.

"So, I'm guessing you're waiting for me to keep talking so you can track down my position and outflank me," Gauron said chuckling. "But what do you do if I expect you to do that?"

Gauron eyed the Venom and smiled psychotically.

Sousuke meanwhile, was listening to the voices and trying to pin down Gauron's position in the vast, echoes of the launch bay. He had a good idea that the man would aim to get to the Venom, though and started to move in that direction.

He found blood on the hand rail of the Venom, leading up into the cockpit and followed the trail up quickly and found an empty cockpit.

At which point one of the M-9s shifted forward, the machine guns in the head firing across the launch bay.

Sousuke dived away from the Venom as it was peppered lightly and the machine gun fire followed him until he took cover behind another AS.

"Hey Kashim!" Gauron shouted. "Are you going to try to fight this without an AS?"

Sousuke grimaced as the M-9 charged forward, knife drawing out, Gauron reaching out to tear aside the M-9 behind which Sousuke had taken cover. In the collision, Sousuke dived out and rolled away from the impact, moving in the blindspots of the M-9 that he knew so well, few of them that there were.

"Hey, Kashim!" Gauron snapped. "Where are you?"

The soldier came up behind the toppled M-9 and scampered up the side, having to hold tightly as the ship was rocked again by an attack from outside. But then he was up top of the wreck and in leaping distance of Gauron's M-9's back.

A light clanking sound alerted the psychopath to the location of his opponent and he chuckled lightly at the roof of his cockpit and then laughed uproariously.

"Oh is the shifting deck not good enough for you Kashim?" Gauron demanded with a loud chortle as he let his M-9 fall back in an attempt to crush Sousuke underneath it.

Grimacing, Sousuke pulled himself around to the front of the M-9's body and found a maintenance crevice in the M-9, firing his submachine gun into it in the hopes of gumming up some of the works.

The ship rocked again, turning the AS's controlled fall into a tumbling, smashing topple that scattered over the entire launch bay with Sousuke dropping off the machine and catching a sideways pillar to hold onto as the ship settled again and he took up his feet, making a dashing run at the downed M-9 as Gauron struggled to right himself as his mech leaned against the wall near where the damaged Venom was secured.

He'd covered half the distance when the head and its anti-personnel guns turned toward him and whirred into life, forcing him to dive aside for cover and continue his approach from behind the row of M-9s.

Gauron's M-9 tried to stand but the shoulder of one arm wouldn't move completely, whether damaged in the fall or by Sousuke's P90, or a combination of the two, it was hard to say. In any case, Sousuke heard the pop of a cockpit opening up.

"I think it's time to trade up from this piece-of-shit M-9, Kashim," Gauron said with a smile. "Let's go back to my old favorite."

Sousuke turned about a corner and saw Gauron ponderously leaping to the cockpit of his Venom to get inside.

If he started that up and cut loose with the lambda driver, he could tear open the da Danaan from the inside out like a bird hatching from an egg. And that would kill everyone on board.

The mithril soldier was too far away to stop Gauron from closing the hatch, but maybe.

Sousuke's eyes turned toward the Arbalest.

If he couldn't stop Gauron from starting the Venom up, he'd keep it busy and suppress that lambda field with his own.

"Where did you go, Kashim?" Gauron demanded as he set his Venom to standing up, growling as the machine proved slow to respond from the accumulated damage it had suffered.

Further ahead in the launch bay, the Arbalest slowly stood up.

"Heh, that's good, Kashim," Gauron said. "That's the way things should go."

The Arbalest turned to face him and its lights blinked on.

"Still with the silent treatment I see," Gauron said.

* * *

Naiki, most of the energy boost of the peach gone, but some still remaining, whooped under water as the great black shark took another massive bite out of the God.

"Go, Ed! Go!" she shouted eagerly.

Poseidon pushed the shark aside with a thrust of water. One less such thing that wasn't aimed at the Danaan, but still required Naiki to push her own torrent through it to stop it.

It was following one of those pressure waves that caused her to see a flutter of movement beyond the thousands of still circling sharks.

_Naiki, follow the Danaan's lead._

_What?_

Naiki watched the Danaan blow some of its ballasts and whip around sideways in a painful looking ripple that couldn't have been doing much for the DAnaan's structure.

But it brought the Danaan to a brief but complete stop, pointed directly at Poseidon's back.

The Demoness smirked and pushed the patterns of water to suggest the giant shark to pull away from the fight for a moment.

"Still running daughter?" Poseidon demanded as he pursued.

Two torpedoes slammed into the massive center of Poseidon's body, rocking into distraction and setting off another explosion from the volatile nature of his fake, enlarged body.

* * *

The Venom and Arbalest felt the ground twist out from under them, scattering them apart for the brief moment it took to stand the machine up again and return to fighting.

"Are you mute, Kashim?" Gauron demanded loudly. "Why aren't you trying to upset my focus here? Tell you what, why don't I set a time limit on this conversation. Two minutes, one minutes…let's see what the self-destruct says."

Sousuke's mind ran through all the possible scenarios that involved his enemy and all the past events that he had been involved in.

Foremost in his mind, he imagined Kaname and Eija in one of those sensory deprivation tanks handled by one of the scientists Gauron employed.

The idea of them being tortured to the point that Sarah had been in when they'd rescued her put a spur of anger and swiftness to his actions.

"Start the lambda driver. Grab the cable."

The words typed themselves out over his computer monitor.

"So how did you goodie two shoes figure out a consistent lambda field?" Gauron wondered. "And how did you form one when the driver was down."

This followed by a quick laugh.

"I don't suppose it matters," he declared as he reached to trigger the self-destruct sequence. "We're both going to be gone soon."

Gauron frowned as the forward section of the launch pad suddenly sealed itself off from the bulk of the bay. As if the machine was rigging for an aquatic launch...

The doors above opened wide and Sousuke, glowing with the power of the lambda driver, bent down and gripped firmly on to one of the cables as the water rushed in over everything. The creaking of the metal, stressed by the flood and the high speed maneuvers of the Danaan, echoed dangerously, threatening for large sections to snap cold under the circumstances.

In the rush of waters, Sousuke directed himself toward Gauron as the psychopath was holding tight to the deck, apparently tearing gouges in the metal to hold. The Arbalest's feet slammed into the head of the Venom, dislodging it as both machines were pulled out of the da Danaan into the crushing water outside.

The cable in the Arbalest's hand snapped to an end and almost pulled out, but held just barely, keeping the Arbalest from wiping further out into the deep. Almost immediately, the da Danaan began to reel Sousuke back inside and close the doors.

"V ^_^ V" typed out on his computer screen.

"Thank you, Chidori," Sousuke breathed as the water started to bleed off around him in the sealed off launch bay.

* * *

The Tuatha de Danaan was already speeding away from its launch site when Poseidon turned around to face it, leaving him open for the megalodon to zip back around and slam into him and tear out an explosive hunk of Poseidon's body.

The embattled God thrust outward with a blast of water pressure at the sub before retuning to looking at the massive shark, still small compared to him.

An emergency blow of air forced the Danaan back away from its intended path and the blast of destructive water pressure passed with yards of the Danaan.

"Targeting position and fire," Tessa ordered firmly.

Once again, the Danaan came to a sudden side-veering motion that lined it up directly with Centauri and two torpedoes were released.

These struck Poseidon in his shoulder and head, blowing the the skull of the construct open wide.

* * *

Naiki watched the body of her so-called father start to shrink away and she nudged the megalodon out toward the other battles the sharks were engaged in all around.

Naiki meanwhile pushed off the giant shark and zipped in toward Poseidon, twisting as she did so to pull vacuum blades under the water, though they lasted much less time than usual given the water always pushing into it.

Still Nabiki managed again to slice into the now only somewhat larger and follow it up again until the giant was torn away and only Poseidon's battered body was left as the spell was pulled away from him.

"What are you doing this for?" Poseidon demanded. "I'm only looking to free you to the way things are!"

"In your dreams!" Naiki snapped.

* * *

Eija reared up her sword as her opponent fell back to his knees. The tendrils ripped out from her ready stance and tore into him again before she took her step forward and stabbed straight for his projection's heart.

* * *

"Get ready to fire another torpedo," Tessa said.

"But, Ma'am," one of the techs said. "We can't..."

Tessa turned to look at them.

"We aren't going to need targeting on this one!"

Then she turned back toward the monitors and shouted animatedly at the dissipating image of Poseidon.

"Get out of...!"

* * *

"...our ocean!" Naiki agreed simultaneously.

Another torpedo left the Danaan and Naiki pulled back focusing a pair of torrents along either side of Poseidon, giving the torpedo a narrow tunnel of low pressure water to fly down and basically operate as the Danaan's targeting system in this case.

Poseidon opened his mouth again in preparation of saying something, only to have the torpedo slam into him and carry him far back, without detonating for a long moment before finally exploding.

Naiki took a deep breath and thought about relaxing there, but remembered the sea life battles currently going on. Given that she'd merely invited and nudged the sharks, mostly physically, it was probably not the best idea to hang around.

_Coming in,_ she sent to Tessa. _I need Eija to send me back to Tokyo, Kyoko was hurt and she needs a doctor!_

_All right,_ Tessa noted. _The diver entrances are in the same..._

A late explosion ripped through the scene and pushed upward toward the surface like an underwater eruption or rocket, drawing Tessa and Naiki's eyes in something like confusion.

"Where'd that come from?" Naiki wondered as she rushed to come into one of the many diver entries for the Da Danaan.

* * *

Kaname breathed a sigh of relief and opened her eyes finding herself back in the sensory deprivation tube and sitting up as it opened.

_Eija are you okay?_ she asked, feeling a heavy sense of fatigue from the other girl.

_He struck back,_ Eija returned. _It seems to have translated into some internal injuries, but I shall be fine._

_Thank God…or, well you know._

_It is a most unfortunate name for a species to have,_ Eija agreed with an audible mental pant. _That's odd…_

_What is?_ Kaname asked looking down at her hands.

_I thought I felt something, _ she paused and Kaname felt a hefty sigh. _Naiki needs me to go to Tokyo, Kyoko is hurt and she thinks I might help._

_I'll be right there,_ Kaname returned tightly.

_Is something wrong?_

_No, nothing, _Kaname said quickly.

As she looked up, her eyes flooded red like Eija's were when she let her death sight out fully, though they faded away to her normal look.

However, the memory of the smeer of red along her left hand did not go away even though she couldn't see it now. She didn't want Eija or Sousuke to know about it just yet, she'd need to know how to tell them.

She didn't even really want to admit to herself that it was there, though she'd seen it.

One little blemish of red on her hands to Eija's death sight.

And something else that bothered her: she'd be actively participating in fighting both Poseidon and Gauron. So shouldn't there have been two?


	34. Union

Tessa sat down in the captain's chair and leaned back, holding her right arm very still as she did so, supporting it with her left. She took a deep breath of air and looked down at Eija painfully pulling herself to standing, wincing with each moment.

"Miss Satomi, are you okay to take Naiki back to Tokyo?" she asked. "Do you need a rest?"

"Kyoko is a friend, Captain," she said simply. "I'll go, and then I'll rest."

"As for you," Dr. Goldberry's voice declared as she came back into the room.

"Doctor," Tessa said in surprise. "I didn't call for you, I thought you'd gone ba..."

"Eija asked I bring her with me," Kaname said rushing into the bridge. "And I can see why! Arms are not supposed to bend like that."

"It's not as bad as it looks," Tessa noted.

"You broke it in the first wave or two," Eija said. "And you've hit it a few times after."

The Doctor walked up to the Captain's chair and triggered the intercom.

"Commander Mardukas, this is Dr. Goldberry," she said. "I need you to take command on the bridge. Captain Testarossa is being relieved for medical reasons for at least the next day."

"Understood," came the return answer. "I'll make my way right up there."

"This is Urzu-7," Sousuke's voice called out. "The launch bay is clear of hostiles. Kill is unconfirmed."

"Right, Sergeant Sagara," Tessa said tightly. "If you could..."

"You're not in command right now, Captain," the doctor reminded her.

"Really!" Tessa snapped, eyes furrowed. "I am still very much in..."

As she tried to stand she tripped in her hurry and tumbled to the floor, fortunately catching herself with her good arm as those in the room were treated to a particular high-pitched noiseless intake of breath.

"And there goes the left ankle," Eija said with a visible and sympathetic wince.

* * *

"I'm going to need you to try making sense here, Ma'am," the police officer said as he spoke to Ukyou, who was currently pinching the bridge of her nostrils, as Konatsu bandaged her arm. "What did you say attacked you?"

"Not what, who," Ukyou said. "Poseidon, some sort of European ocean God."

"I know the new media is going a little bit crazy, but do you really expect me to put an APB on a..." the cop stopped as several people called out and weapons were drawn to point toward a pool of blood.

First one head and then another was pulled through, with one of the two figures, a green-haired girl, drenching wet, who looked like she'd been through a hell of a fight. Beside her a pale, dark-haired girl sunk back into the pool of blood while the green-haired one quickly sniffed around at the air and honed in on the bystander being carefully moved into an ambulance.

"Kyoko!" Naiki shouted, pushing through the cops without worry and getting to her side.

There was a clear limp to her normal stride as she did so, and Eija watched from where she stayed in the blood pool focusing at least part of her attention on her sister.

Behind, Eija was bringing through Kaname and then Sousuke as the cops looked on in confusion and worry.

"Don't worry," Sousuke said. "I'm Sousuke Sagara of Jindai High, I handle the trash duties for my class and I can assure you that this is nothing but a school function."

He said this while dressed in military fatigues with a P90 submachine gun hanging from his back and sporting several clear battlefield injuries while Eija and Kaname stared at him, mouth open.

Further away, Ukyou was laughing loudly after fighting a losing battle to keep a straight face.

* * *

"You look like you've been through World War III," Kyoko declared as Naiki came to the side of her stretcher.

"Excuse me, we have to get her to the hospital please," one of the paramedics said, pausing as he took in Naiki as well. "And you should go too."

"Hey, I brought the hospital here," Naiki said pushing Eija forward as her sister came near. "See, Eija Satomi, Granddaughter of Persephone, Avalon Providers Prospective, Goddess of Blood 3rd category."

"I'm not a hospital, Naiki," Eija said quietly as she looked over Kyoko and glanced apologetically at the paramedics. "I am trained though, certified acupuncture, chiatsu, first aid and..."

"Goddess of Blood?" the paramedic said. "You mean like a vampire? Is that some sort of Live Action Game thing?"

Eija sighed expressively.

"There's not much I can do right now, Kyoko, sorry," Eija said. "There is some minor internal bleeding and I can soften that a bit, but hospital is better."

"That's fine," Kyoko said shrugging. "But maybe you and Naiki should go to the doctor's."

"We can take both of you right now," one of the paramedics noted.

"You're not set up for it," Eija said. "Slight but major differences in anatomy, body chemistry is all wrong. I've got someone I can call."

"I'll go with..." Naiki started to say as Eija grabbed her arm. "...Kyoko?"

"I'll take her with me," Eija said bluntly. "Sorry Kyoko."

"Well, everybody's fine so I'm fine too," Kyoko said. "Just make sure you both get looked at, I want to see everybody visit me."

Eija grimaced and looked up at her sister to see if Naiki had noticed. One of Kyoko's legs was shattered, it was amazing she was even as cheerful as he was, but walking without a cane would be hard. Had Yggdrasil been up...it could have been taken care of right now, but...

Sousuke and Kaname eventually made there way over to see Kyoko off while Eija moved to sit down near one of the clear martial artists she saw sitting to the side.

Slowly, she turned over and lay down on her side.

"Naiki can you call Belldandy please?" she asked quietly.

"Eija!" Kaname shouted, dragging Sousuke over with her as her friend started to lose hold on the repressed pain she was feeling.

* * *

Ranma had been expecting to arrive in Tokyo and find one of his daughters in light training and recuperation. Instead he found herself arriving with Deimosu at Ukyou's place to see a scene of devastation ranging all the way up one of the streets and starting with Ukyou's backyard.

In the building, Urd and Persephone were discussing what sounded like injuries while Belldandy was treating a nervous looking Naiki and a sleeping Eija was lying down on a bat in the living room, a damp cloth on her forehead and Sousuke and Kaname sitting worriedly near her.

"What the hell?" Ranma demanded loudly from the doorway before moving to check first one and then the other girl.

She was immediately relieved to see that both appeared to have strong life signs.

"Poseidon attacked and the fight moved to the pacific and the Da Danaan," Mara's voice said from the side, drawing Ranma's attention. "It sounds like Poseidon's dead. Eija's suffering from exhaustion and some internal bleeding, but given what her Domain is she kept it in check until she could call the Norns."

"And Naiki?" Ranma asked, looking toward her green-haired daughter.

"Kyoko gave her one of my mother's peaches," Persephone said. "It healed her old wounds, but she picked up new ones immediately after. I suppose she didn't feel right without gaping injuries."

"Kyoko got that peach from you?" Naiki said, surprised. "I ate something from you?"

"Don't complain God-Mode Sue," Ukyou said coming into the room and handing out food and drinks. "That peach saved your bacon."

"I note you also did not much complain about Persephone when you were introducing Eija to the ambulance driver," Sousuke noted.

"You mean pushed her at the ambulance driver and asked her to fix everything," Kaname asked.

Ranma was holding a palm to her face tightly as Naiki was growing visibly more nervous and pale.

"That said, she handled herself pretty well, sugar," Ukyou said. "Though Mousse, 'Natsu an I were talking and we definitely see what you mean about defense."

Any further commentary on Naiki was paused as Deimosu entered the room. Mara looked up and stared at him, frowning heavily and clinching her fist. Persephone glanced over and then looked away, moving to help Belldandy with treating Naiki's injuries.

Urd stood up and walked past the blonde Satomi, looking toward Ranma.

"I'm going to head home and start putting together some potions for the girls," she said coolly as she left.

Deimosu watched her go, wishing he could be confused as to what the coldness was for.

"You'll have to excuse Urd," Belldandy noted politely. "Her mother died in the attack on Nifelheim."

"Yeah," Deimosu said, scratching behind his head.

He couldn't think of anything else to say. "Sorry" in no way made up for such a thing.

Ukyou frowned at the discussion and set her tray down.

"Well, another of kid," Ukyou said. "Guess you can take a seat and I'll get you and your mother something."

She left the room then wishing she could ask what exactly the sudden chill had been about, but knew better than to do that while she had guests that might take offense.

She'd learned more than a few lessons on etiquette over the years as a restauranteur.

"Ranma, we need to talk," Mara said.

Ranma frowned as he looked between his injured and unconscious daughters and then back to Mara, leaving with a glance toward Sousuke and Kaname.

"I'll be right back," she said.

"Don't worry, Satomi-san," Kaname said. "I've gotten very good at taking care of Eija like this."

Ranma smirked momentarily and then followed Mara out of the house.

"What's so important you dragging me away from my kids now?" Ranma asked.

"Naiki owes favors to a rebel," Mara said simply.

Ranma frowned and crossed his arms.

"How'd that happen?" he asked.

"Before she came into my tutelage," Mara said. "She used the Formorian hunting spell from your collection. Have you or anyone else used that by the way?"

"No," Ranma said turning a bit more concerned. "Never had a need. Who's the Demon behind the spell."

"Balor," Mara said. "And that's a problem."

"Why precisely?" the martial artist insisted.

"Because Balor's been imprisoned so long nobody really owes him favors anymore," Mara said. "So as soon as Nifelheim is back up, he's bound to notice her as a Demon in the midst of the list of whatever humans magicians have cast the spell and are still alive."

Mara let that sink before continuing.

"I just got a report that confirms the bastard is alive," she said.

"You've got a file?" Ranma asked.

"Someone's putting together what we have and delivering it to your secretary now," Mara said. "Word is, Hild crippled him somehow, but he's still more dangerous than most of us."

"You mean she really exists?" Ranma asked in a bit of mood deflecting humor that fell flat.

"What?" Mara asked, just confused.

"Nevermind," Ranma said. "My superior wants me to invite you and one of the Gods to this meeting of mine."

"I probably would have at least had it watched anyway," Mara said, walking back to the house.

"Mara, I appreciate you looking out for my girls," Ranma said.

"Martial artists aren't the only ones with duty, Satomi," Mara said. "Oh, by the way, classes start in another day. I'm already letting the other faculty know that Eija and Naiki are going to miss the first day or so."

* * *

Hel found herself staring around the blasted edge of the village where Hecate had been brought down. She could still smell the blood even now, several days later. In fact, it looked to her as if she could still see the place where Natsume-san's sister had died to throw her clear of the explosive trap.

"That's exactly the spot," a voice whispered in her ear.

She turned about and found herself staring at a woman's bloody face glaring at her.

"...where you helped kill me, worm."

* * *

Hel snapped awake and clutched at the blankets around her, feeling her heart beating quickly. The shock slowly faded away as her breathing slowed down and she honed in on the sound of Natsume Tendo chopping vegetables.

"I'm Hel, Demoness of Imprisonment," she reminded herself. "I'm not some..."

She felt a shiver and looked back over her shoulder toward a corner of the room, narrowing her eyes as there was nothing there. Slowly, looking around carefully, Hel started to shift around looking for any sign of a problem.

She started to slide her legs out over the edge of the futon when a sudden thought chilled her and stopped the motion. Idly, she started to lean over the edge of the futon and glance down, breathing a sigh of relief.

"It's a futon, idiot," she noted. "There is no under the bed."

Taking a deep breath at this realization and laughing self-comfortingly, she calmed down.

And then lifted up the edge of the futon with her good hand to look under it anyway.

Reaching for her crutch, she started to climb to her feet and then to hobble her way out of the bed room toward the sound of the chopping vegetables. She approached through the hallways and came to the door of the human warrior's kitchen.

The woman stood there, back to the doorway, holding the food with one hand and chopping with the other.

"Natsume-san," she said idly. "I think your sister's ghost is..."

A hacked and bloody artificial arm was tossed over the shoulder of the figure she was speaking to, knocking into Hel and carrying her down to the floor as the figure started to turn around to face her.

* * *

Natsume pushed herself into the bedroom she'd set Hel up in as she heard the girl's scream pulling her away from the morning routine. She found the girl, wide-eyed and panting, clutching the blanket hard.

Having basically raised her younger sister when they were children, Natsume was no stranger to the need to comfort kids after something like that.

Though she had her own way to do that.

"Good, you're up," she commented, moving into the room and picking up some of the things around the room, immediately drawing Hel's attention.

"I can do that for myself!" the girl said, grabbing her crutch and struggling to stand up and start to clean the room.

Incidentally forgetting her own fear in the process of being spurred to action.

Natsume watched her a few minutes and was about to turn about to leave when the girl paused in moving around, holding a book and not really looking at it.

"Is there something you wish to discuss?" Natsume asked evenly.

"No," she said quickly. "But I thi..."

She stopped herself and then went back to cleaning the room.

Natsume watched for a little bit more and then nodded, though the girl couldn't see her.

"We shall have visitors today," Natsume said. "My sisters shall be here to plan the funeral."

Hel stopped and then started cleaning again, finishing up the last real bit of straightening that was needed and moving on to what was essentially just making more work for her to do.

"You can stay in here, if you want," Natsume said.

The martial artist was pretty certain that the child would rise to that challenge and then perhaps take some of the weight off of her shoulders.

It didn't fall on Hel's shoulders, the guilt was solely on her own. The child had been Natsume's responsibility and that should have included making sure she was out of the fighting area completely, especially knowing the girl's pride.

Kurumi had died amending her mistake, not the child's.

A sound of cracking glass drew Natsume's eyes to one of the few framed pictures, her and her sister in happy days, in the hall and watched as a crack spread its way through the covering frame and then shatter completely to the floor.

"Yes, Kurumi," Natsume said. "I know."

* * *

Mara looked about her abandoned arcade, one of several lairs she'd used over the years in competing against the Norns, and took in all the various Demons and other Nifelheim residents that were currently there and getting information put together on numbers and placement and other such things.

A decision would have to be made before she went to this meeting Ranma had been assigned to represent Psyche at.

"What are the numbers, Tutivillus?" she asked.

"Sixty in the US, thirty-two in England and Western Europe, fifteen in Africa, forty throughout south east-asia, another eighteen here in Japan, six in Korea," a demon noted, pushing back a set of glasses. "An estimated one-hundred seventy one thousand confirmed and accounted for made it out or already lived on Earth. The last numbers we had out of Nifelheim before they got enough control of Nidhogg to shut outgoing as well as incoming says there were about eighty thousand Demons still back home. Any Gods or Half-Gods that stayed back were killed."

Mara closed her eyes along with several other people.

"Considering our state of over population and the few Earth communities we already had and taking a large estimate of usurper forces operating on planet and the population that was sealed in the Abyss at the time," the Demon noted. "That's an estimated one hundred ninety thousand dead. More than forty percent of the total population of Nifelheim and associated Earth communities."

"Creator," someone whispered.

"If even twenty percent of those stayed behind as ghosts..." another voice noted.

"There's worse," Mara said. "I don't see Avalon Providers being traitors to Asgard in general, so imagine all the millions of old and crazy ghosts they've been keeping around while attempting to cross them over out of this world. How long before those start escaping now that no one is likely watching them."

"What about the Doublet Fortress?" someone asked.

"Has moved itself and severed all connection," the informing Demon said. "The old passkeys aren't working."

"What sort of people do we have?" Mara asked.

"We have reports from nearly ten thousand Faustians on Earth," Tutivillus said. "The majority of the Gehenna Compact got out, being that they were almost half defected Gods and were evacced as soon as the virus was purged. Two thousand loyal Shadows got out of Nifelheim, five hundred stayed behind to sow dissension in the rebel ranks. About nine hundred of the Nidhogg Tenders escaped as well, meaning we have about twenty percent of our Network specialists."

"How about Rakshasha, we have to have more than three hundred," a dark skinned Demon bearing the full but damaged uniform of a Rakshasha captain.

"We have had contact with another five hundred, including recruiting from some of the general population," Tutivillus said. "And we have found ten researchers from the Forge."

"Ten?" Mara said. "Ten? I heard nothing about Abyss, but it makes sense they were all dead if they weren't in a new incarnations. They got hit first. But are you saying out of a weapons and technology development staff of seven thousand we only managed to save ten?"

"Or else they're all traitors," Tutivillus noted.

"By the Call, we'll be drowning in Carapaces," someone noted.

"They have to make or repair more first," someone noted.

"What are the numbers on rebels that we know," Mara asked.

"There were sixty thousand criminals in the Abyss," the clerk noted. "All repeat offenders, all of whose activities continued past the tabula rasa effect of reincarnation. We estimate about twenty thousand rebels were in part of the active coup, maybe another five joined it. Mostly older Demons that rarely if ever reincarnated and were in what we thought to be unimportant positions."

"Please tell me that's Pre-Hild," someone said hopefully.

Mara growled at what she considered a disrespcetful term but looked back to the Demon giving the report.

"It is," Tutivillus said. "Currently, we think their numbers are about twenty-seven thousand. There is a confirmed death count on Hild's last act."

There was an intake of breath as they waited.

"Roughly forty thousand renegade Demons including all fifty carapaces that were known to be active in the attack on Nifelheim," he said. "Unfortunately, we think there were also five thousand civilians caught as well."

"It doesn't matter," a Rakshasha noted. "She almost took them in half, but she left us outnumbered more than thirty to one. Unless you want to include the secretaries, cooks and the like that are in the civilians we got out."

"We're only nine to one if you include Shadows," Mara said. "And almost two to one if you include Faustians."

"We're not going to win a war with saboteurs and spies," the Rakshasha captain noted. "A third of our warriors seem to have survived, if you include traitors and criminals, but that still leaves us thirty to one. Unless someone can find the Doublet Fortress and convince them it's not time to go away for a million years and then come back to see what's happening."

Mara crossed her arms and walked from one end of the room to the next.

"After confirming Ranma Satomi had reached category 2 level, Hild ordered a investigation into power levels of humans around the planet," Mara said. "I saw a preliminary survey that had confirmed thirty-five hundred category 2 humans alive on the planet. Many of those battle trained. That was preliminary."

Mara let that sink in.

"We can't win alone," Mara said. "And I'm going to tell you, from a military stand point, the Gods are probably worse off than we are. They had fewer warriors already, many of the old war gods had gone on to other things. Morrigan, THE Morrigan, is a divine cop in the Creator's name! And not head of the Eyes of Ra either."

She locked eyes with several people.

"Do you understand what I'm saying," she asked. "If we're going to get our homes back, we're going to need to get help from the humans. And given where they are now and where we are. That means no manipulation, but asking nicely and saying 'yes, please, thank you.'"

There were several groans around the room.

"Look, it was human munitions that took out Hecate and a human plan," Mara said. "And a human killed her in the end even if it was with a God-made weapon. Humans killed Poseidon. A human stormed the Doublet Fortress in the first place. The humans have their own immortals now."

"And what are we going to do?" a Rakshasha asked. "Sit back and let them rescue us?"

"Hell no," Mara said, shaking her head. "Hell no. It's our home, we are ACTING in this. Hild did not die to have us turn over on our backs because our numbers are small!"

"You have a plan that doesn't involve running?" someone asked.

Mara ignored the voice.

"We have spearheads, we have poison and daggers," Mara said. "What we need is the shaft to those spears. We need swords, we need shields. We need support. And we need it now."

She paused again.

"Because we all know that when that gate opens, we'll all still be stuck with our own resources until we can hack access," Mara said. "But there will be people coming down with Category 1 power without Category 1 restraint. The humans have an Ascension device. I suspect they're making a Network mainframe. If we want to be able to stand up to Balor, we need help."

She looked around, crossing her arms.

"Do you have any questions, or shall we make an obligatory remarks about the fact I'm less than half as old as any of you here?" Mara asked.

There was some grumbling but it quieted down.

"Then I want you to get word to the camps," Mara said. "Anybody with the Gehenna Compact needs to get to their local hospitals and start giving human doctors a crash course in Demonic and Godly anatomy and the like. Faustians need to start making plans about which nations and groups to appeal to and make connections with any Asgard refugees they know about."

"And the Shadows and Rakshasha?" someone asked.

"For Rakshasha, protect our camps for now," she said. "Until we got deals with the various countries for refuge. After that, we're going to be getting ready. I'm willing to bet that of that twenty-seven thousand usurpers, that are probably fewer disciplined soldiers than we have."

"And the shadows?" Mara continued. "The Shadows just do what they always have done, only taking Asgard off the target list."

* * *

Ranma stared at her secretary's desk and blinked.

Several times.

Paper was everywhere, a veritable sea of it.

There was also a small pile of books, a spy novel, a couple of fantasy books, an instruction text on how to fly fish, origami, an old tome that looked like it was about the War of the Roses, a genetics text, a few magazines and assorted newspapers.

A number of expanding file folders sat piled about the desk. Everything was piled as neatly and efficiently as possible. There was just so much of it.

She thought there might have been a computer under the lot somewhere. She remembered requisitioning one.

Oh, there it was piled in the corner.

In the waste bin across the room was a copy of Dianetics.

It was speared through with what looked like pieces of paper folded into thin strips.

"Excuse me," she called out, wondering if there was anybody behind all this.

"Yes?" a voice called from her office.

A small, mousy woman wearing thick glasses appeared in the doorway carrying a neat, black leather conference folder which she was reading through and a cup of tea she was sipping.

The woman herself was dressed in a long-skirt and button-up shirt with a tie and a rather thick jacket that made it somewhat difficult to tell what sort of shape she was in.

And there was paper apparently stuffed as neatly as possible into everyone of the pockets Ranma could see and probably a few she couldn't. There were three lumps that suggested she had full books in some of her pockets.

"Who are you?" Ranma asked.

"Oh," the woman said, looking around in a sudden confusion.

She practically shoved her folder over at Ranma and then pulled it back with a muttered sorry and embarrassed look before she set it carefully atop the precarious pile of papers and books. Then she drained her tea, coughed a bit as some went down the wrong way and waved herself in exasperation before bowing and laughing nervously.

"I'm Yomiko Readman," she said. "Your secretary?"

Ranma's eyes closed and her chin came down to her chest in exasperation before picking it up again.

"You haven't taken any guests with the office looking like this have you?" she asked, gesturing at the cacophony.

"Huh?" Yomiko asked. "Oh, sorry, I was trying to find something."

She gestured at the piles of paper and books and Ranma watched the paper lift up in a swarm, carrying books to the shelves and opening file cabinet drawers to file itself before a last piece of paper closed everything and slipped back toward the desk and into the conference folder the woman had been carrying.

Ranma stared again in surprise and then shook her head again.

"Telekinesis?" Ranma asked.

"Paper master," Yomiko said. "It's sort of like I've been reading about a Demon's Realm or God's Domain. I'm very versatile and powerful within my limits."

Ranma looked over toward the wastebasket and the speared book.

"Let's not leave evidence of what exactly you can do lying around like that?" she said, original impression of the girl mollified by the display.

"Oh, right, sorry Ma'am," Yomiko said, embarrassed as she moved to pick up the book and take it to an outer trash can. "I've got a file from a Mara Geisthexe here, I was told to make sure to give it to you first thing."

Ranma nodded and took it up quickly.

"Which I guess makes it lucky that you actually are where I was told you'd be for once," Yomiko said.

She immediately froze and turned to look at Ranma who was now staring across at her with an arched eyebrow and paused in the process of opening the file folder.

"I think I like you," Ranma said, cracking a smile.

Yomiko breathed out a sigh of relief and Ranma went back to the file. She was reading the first page when she paused and glanced up for a moment before looking back down.

"You're early," she noted over her shoulder in a casual tone. "I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow."

"Ma'am?" Yomiko said, turning around and then noting the figure standing in the door. "Is there anything I should be attending to, Ma'am?"

"This is just a personal visit," the man there said.

"He's an old acquaintance," Ranma explained. "And he's one of our attendees for tomorrow's meeting, so respect."

"All right, Ma'am," Yomiko said. "I'll be here if you have need me."

Ranma continued reading without looking at herb and walked into her office gesturing for him to follow. The man said nothing of her practically ignoring him and followed Ranma into the next room.

Ranma sat down behind her desk and continued to read for several minutes quietly, mind clearly working. Her visitor waited patiently as the woman read the report in front of her, recognizing the look on the face from his youth.

Interrupting the redhead at this time would do nothing but make both of them look less dignified.

After ten minutes, Ranma set the folder down, eyes still seemingly seeing something else. And then she looked up toward Herb.

"No windows?" Herb asked conversationally, looking around.

"Sorry about that, Herb," the red-head said ignoring the non-sequitor with its implied commentary on being kept waiting. "It relates to one of my children."

"Ah," Herb said. "Should I hide mine?"

"Depends on if he's tried to kidnap my girls with the intention of raping them in the recent past," Ranma noted.

"I don't think his thoughts had gone as far as the second yet," Herb said in his own defense. "And if you truly had, I suspect he'd be dead right now."

Ranma and Herb locked eyes for a moment.

"After all," he said. "You once killed Saffron. And that was when you were still human. Or at least your chi wasn't what it is now...and is that mana?"

"Yes," Ranma said darkly. "It is."

"What are you, Saotome?" Herb asked.

"I don't know," Ranma said shrugging. "Maybe my body just up and decided if the world was going to keep dishing out battle and magic my way that it might as well take it."

"There are implications to that statement," Herb noted.

"Aren't there always?" Ranma asked. "And my name is Satomi now. I'm not part of the clan anymore."

"And your manhood," the Musk prince asked.

"Oh, right," Ranma said, leaning over a moment. "Readman, in here, please. I need you to witness something."

The paper master apparently dropped a pile of something that fluttered across the floor and then half ran into the room, noting Ranma's once again arched eyebrow.

"Yes, Ma'am?" she asked.

"Okay," Ranma said. "Watch."

And then Ranma grew into his male form, the clothing of his red power-dress shifting around into a red suit as it did so.

"I'm gonna need an ID, name and background for this form," Ranma said.

"Uhhh..." Yomiko said. "Did...did you have a particular name in mind?"

"Are you kidding?" Ranma asked. "When I had to come up with a new identity last time I went from Ranma Saotome to Ranma Satomi. This is not indicative of great skill in forging identities. Leave this to me and I'll end up with something stupid like Randy Savage and the heck would have a name like that?"

"There actually is a..." Yomiko sighed and shook her head. "Never mind, I'll work on it."

She bowed and moved back to the next room.

Ranma nodded and then shifted back into her female form to look at Herb and take in his reaction.

"But if you can do that...why are you in this form?" Herb asked, put off balance for the first time. "You especially."

"Well, let's count the reasons," Ranma said. "First I had put forth a substantial amount of effort to establish the identity of Ranma Satomi before I could change back. And I really don't feel like explaining that I made a mistake on my height, weight, hair-color and, oh, gender."

She ticked off one finger.

"Second," she continued. "I've been stuck in one form for seventeen years. It's gotten comfortable in spite of itself."

She ticked off another finger.

"Third," she added. "Aside from Nerima and a couple of other people, just about nobody knows this form is connected to my name."

Her voice raised.

"Including Psyche and Mithril, understand Readman?" Ranma called out.

"Wait," Readman said, sticking her head in the doorway. "I just met you and your trusting me with a secret you want kept from our bosses?"

"Problem?" Ranma asked.

Yomiko's mouth gaped open and tried to work to say something.

"I'll figure something out," she said and went back to work in the next room.

"Any other reason?" Herb asked.

"I have teenagers," Ranma said.

"You could have just started with that one," Herb noted.

"What's the reason you're here early," Ranma asked.

"I wanted to see if it was you," Herb said. "And I want to hear why Psyche is asking for all of us to send representatives. Why do you need to talk to the Byankala Valley so badly?"

"I'm guessing you haven't noticed the news the last few weeks," Ranma noted calmly, leaning back. "It's not just Byankala. Kamiya, Mano, O'Connor, Kisaragi, Yamigumo, Higurashi..."

"I do not follow the names outside the Musk so much," Herb noted. "Suffice to say, I assume you're bringing in a number of well known families in the region. Why."

Ranma held up two more fingers indicating two more names.

"Asgard and Nifelheim," she noted. "And if you know what mana is you know what they are."

Herb stared in shock.

"Why would the Gods and Demons sit down at a table together with us?" Herb demanded shocked.

"Because someone took their little drink and 8-Demon bag and went and stormed the Pillars of Heaven," Ranma said. "And Hell."

The fact that it had been her son was left quiet.

"And if you'd watched any news instead of just flying over here," Ranma said. "You'd have seen we have thousands of them popping up all over the world looking for refuge."

"So we are going to be discussing a response to..."

"A bunch of divine and infernal lunatics with enough power to make Saffron look like a light bulb," Ranma said.

Herb stared at her in shock.

Yomiko's chair rolled across the floor and she peeked in again.

"She's making it sound just a tad worse than it really is," Yomiko said. "Somewhat...hopefully..."

* * *

Belldandy walked out into the main room and started handing out trays of food to the group of Gods that had gathered in her mortal home. Persephone and sipped a cup of tea while Thor drank a can of beer from a six pack that he had brought with him. Urd held another of the same drinks, but was only sipping it for now.

"Is everybody ready?" Belldandy asked.

"Yes, Lady Verdandi," Thor said respectfully. "Let's get this discussed."

"We all know there has been no contact with Asgard for the last week or more," Belldandy said. "Until three days ago, Mara said more Demons at least were escaping Nifelheim, but we haven't found any Gods that got out of Asgard since the initial attacks."

"And there are only roughly a hundred thousand of us that managed to get out of Asgard," Persephone noted.

"Fortunately," and there was a clear sarcasm to Thor's tone, "the majority of his Half-Demons and Asgardian Demons got forcibly pushed down here before the doors closed because of that damn virus. Unfortunately, you let too many of us reincarnate at once and let too many change out of the Einherjar completely."

"How many Einherjar got out?" Urd asked.

"Above the incarnation age of twelve?" Thor said. "A thousand, maybe another two hundred."

"Doesn't that put us better off than the Demons?" Skuld asked cautiously.

"You're kidding," another God said. "They still had a huge number of warriors."

"Mara was saying they found some more Rakshasha," Belldandy noted. "So I believe they have at least gone over three hundred."

"How many traitors did they have?" someone asked.

"Not as many as you're thinking," Kali said. "Most Demons are...were, religiously loyal to Hild. It's more a matter of how many died than how many betrayed their people."

"The problem is, we're missing a lot of big names," Thor said. "You've got me, yes, an Kali if she decides to take up the battlefield again, but most of the rest of what we have are mostly...okay. Athena is missing, Ares is missing..."

"Ares is dead," a bitter voice said and everyone turned to look at a girl with wild hair rocking back and forth. "Apollo and Cu Chulainn did it."

Belldandy stood up and walked over to the girl, reaching down to wrap an arm around her shoulders and then start walking out with the girl.

"Excuse us," she said to the others. "Artemis should be sleeping."

Thor, face pale with anger waited until the Norn was back to speak.

"You see, Artemis is too young to defend herself," Thor said, keeping his voice down and glancing toward where the girl had been taken. "Did any..."

"She got out before they could do anything," Belldandy promised him.

"What is wrong with all the Greek male Gods?" Skuld wondered. "Are they all perverts?"

"In any case," Belldandy said, "We have no information on what to do about Asgard, what happened, how many...how many are...okay. We had no plan for evacuation at all? Didn't Athena have a proposal?"

"Turned aside as alarmist," Persephone noted. "I remember voting in favor."

"The truce made us soft," Urd said. "Both sides. Ten thousand years ago, Hecate would never have been able to pull this off. We were too paranoid to not notice something like this. I can guarantee you, though, that the only reason we're not looking at her sitting over us with a horde of Doublet connections to keep us in line is that Deimosu Satomi jumped her gun."

"Right, so instead of oppression and enslavement," Skuld said. "We have total slaughter. That's a step up."

"Let us not blame Deimosu," Belldandy said. "We've all been tricked in the past to unleashing something very dangerous that came near to destroying the world. I'm certain this is nothing like what he intended."

She paused and then continued before anybody else could take up the discussion.

"In truth, we should have taken the system down ourselves years ago," Belldandy said. "But the matter isn't what was done, it is what shall we do now?"

"There's a new race of immortals out there," someone noted. "Doesn't that mean we should be finding a dimensional hiding place and come back later?"

"Not this time," Belldandy said calmly. "This time, I think it would be best if we were to work with this new race."

Belldandy sat calmly.

"I do not wish to see Gods die, or Demons die, or humans or..." she looked over toward Persephone.

"Ainur is what they're calling themselves," Persephone said. "Off that charming book of Mr. Tolkien's. Like much of the rest of their organization."

Belldandy nodded.

"I do not wish to see anyone die," Belldandy said. "Not even these who stole our home for us."

"People will die, Belldandy," Kali noted. "People have already died and the only way to stop more from dying will probably be for others to die."

"I know I can't stop it all," the middle Norn said.

"Big sister," Skuld said quietly.

"I do not remember the rise of the Gods from the silthine," she said. "I am younger than the human race. As is Thor and my sisters, and so many more of us. That old world that yo...that old world that was broken and the world before that are not our world. This is our world. Asgard is where we work, but Earth is where we grow and learn and live. It is what we remember when we recall our childhoods."

Belldandy took a breath.

"I do not want to see it destroyed by another war or accident," she said.

"Will you sit back and do nothing," someone asked.

"Most definitely not," Belldandy said, eyes narrowing angrily at the suggestion. "And I understand that battle will happen. It takes two sides at the least for a battle, but it takes only one side to have a massacre. I will fight. In my own way."

She stood up.

"And I shall do that by helping the effort already in place rather than trying to make a new one from the beginning," Belldandy said.

Then she walked to the doors.

"I'm sorry, I have to go see Keiichi," she said emotionally.

Urd stood up then and crossed her arms before looking at Skuld who nodded uncertainly, looking towards where her sister had already left.

"I think the Norns have made our decision," she said firmly. "If you're in, come and talk to us."

And then she left.

* * *

The knock on the door came and Hel looked that direction as she sat and read through one of the woman's books. There was a TV and a small number of DVDs that looked like they hadn't often been watched, possibly gifts from a student, but the books were more interesting. They also required a bit more distraction and thus allowed a bit more escape, not that she'd say that.

The knock came again and Hel realized that Natsume was across the small compound in the training hall. She reached for her crutch and stood up, hobbling her way over to the door cautiously, wary of finding that she was in another dream and about to find a bloody figure staring at her behind the entrance.

It was quite the opposite when the door opened to reveal a tall woman with a beautiful, smiling face and long brown hair. There was a man with her and between them a girl not much younger than Hel currently was.

"Oh, hello," the woman said with a sad smile. "Would you be, Hel?"

"You're Natsume-san's...other sister?" she asked.

"One of them," the woman said. "I'm Kasumi Ono, this is my husband, Tofu and this is our daughter Kimiko."

Hel nodded with a firmed up chin and limped aside to give them room to come in.

"I'll go find Natsume-san," she said.

"That's all right," Tofu said. "Think you can keep our daughter company while we talk to her?"

"I am not unable to..." she sighed and then shook her head. "All right, fine. There are some videos..."

"Does she have Spirited Away?" Kimiko asked shyly, voice trailing in volume as she realized that she'd interrupted.

"Natsume-san is an adult living alone," Hel said rolling her eyes. "Why would she have anything good?"

Kasumi and Tofu watched the little Demon limp off toward the couch and shared a look. Tofu nodded and quietly gestured for her to continue back towards the training hall and signaled he'd watch the two girls. Kasumi nodded and started in that direction.

The eldest of the former Tendo sisters paused in the hallway to take note of a missing picture that she knew had been one of Natsume and Kurumi and frowned briefly before putting back a comforting expression and moving on.

She found Natsume in the middle of the training hall, sitting amidst a scanty collection of photographs and picking through them. She glanced up as Kasumi entered the door and ventured one of the smiles that used to be more common when she was a teenager.

"Kasumi, it's good to see you," she said. "Did you come alone?"

"Nabiki and Ryouga are a little behind us, but I left Kimiko with your guest," she said. "Tofu is watching them."

"Hel is a bit grating," Natsume said before moving on to assure Kasumi, "but she is safe."

She paused a moment and stood up.

"Or at least she's no threat," the martial artist corrected herself. "She will eventually be safe."

"I'm sure," Kasumi said, stepping forward to give Natsume a firm and comforting hug.

Natsume blinked, mind apparently railing at the sudden contact. It hadn't been all that uncommon in her youth given she'd grown up with Kurumi, but in her adult life it had become decidedly rare and usually uncomfortable.

Though a hug from Kasumi could never have been considered uncomfortable by her and she wrapped her own arm around her adoptive sister casually.

Kasumi stepped back and looked down.

"Are you picking a picture for the shrine?" Kasumi asked, kneeling down to look at the pictures. "You should have waited for all of us to be here first."

"Perhaps," Natsume said, not elaborating.

"It is very kind of you to take in the girl," Kasumi said as she idly pulled the photos into a neat pile and started setting them aside for perusing later.

"Is Akane coming?" Natsume asked. "I heard she was called up for dealing with these Demon and God refugees."

"She is assigned here," Kasumi said.

"But...she's navy," Natsume noted.

"She's also a trained chi-user and there is a recently cursed monster-infested forest nearby," the ever calm elder sister reminded her.

"This is true, I was worried we might not be complete," the other woman said, holding a picture of Kurumi.

Kasumi paused and wondered at the fact that Natsume made no comment that she should have been able to handle the forest herself.

"Will there be any others like Hel at the funeral?" Kasumi asked. "I know she died in battle and it is customary to invite those who stood beside one of us in battle."

"I have heard interest in attending the service from some," Natsume said.

"Hmm, I shall have to attend to figuring out what is best to serve such guests then," Kasumi noted with a look of concern. "It would not do to dishonor her comrades by accidentally poisoning them."

"If we wanted to do that," Nabiki's voice said from the doorway, "we could always have Akane cook."

"Nabiki," Natsume said nodding, and relaxing a little as the third of the Tendos appeared in the dojo. "You're showing."

"Yeah, boy am I," Nabiki said stepping forward with a smirk. "Three months left."

The smirk softened and she gave Natsume an extremely awkward hug which was equally awkwardly received.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

"I shall be fine," Natsume said.

"Are you putting up the photos, Sis?" Nabiki asked, looking over toward Kasumi.

"We should wait for all of us sisters to be here," Kasumi said.

"Leave it to Akane to be late," Nabiki noted with a smile as she looked toward the door.

"I am not late," Akane protested as she walked in wearing her uniform. "I had to report in and see the command post."

She didn't hesitate at all to cross over to Natsume and hug her tightly and honestly, if a little aggressively as compared to Kasumi.

She then moved to Kasumi and, carefully, Nabiki.

"Well, then," Kasumi said. "I think we can begin to discuss the plans. Shall we, sisters?"

It was a moment later when the four sat down and Kasumi started passing out the photo collections Natsume had while taking a small pile of her own pictures out of a purse. Nabiki and Akane did likewise and the four started to pick through the photos.

"It needs to be something triumphant," Kasumi noted, "Considering what she accomplished."

Natsume nodded quietly at that.

"I do not have many pictures of her," she said.

"There are never enough pictures," Akane noted, thinking of her own mother. "You'd think we'd learn."

"Did she ever...have anyone?" Kasumi asked. "Is there someone we need to call?"

"I do not know," the one-armed sister noted. "She i...would occasionally be out of contact for months at a time, there might have been a man...woman...Tarou..."

"I don't see Kurumi as being into tentacles," Akane commented with a choked laugh as she brushed something out of the corner of her eye. "You don't think she would have told you?"

"She has...had been very angry quite often of late," Natsume said with an expressive sigh.

"It was hard to tell from talking to her," Kasumi noted, lingering on a picture that showed Kurumi playing with her own little girl and tracing a finger along it. "She always sounded so upbeat."

"Upbeat doesn't mean there's no anger," Akane noted from experience. "I can tell you it was there. I think...I think she felt guilty for..."

She gestured toward Natsume's missing arm and shrugged.

"I think I noticed that," the woman noted quietly. "But she wasn't even on the same continent when it happened, and in the end..."

"Are you about to say you feel guilty about this?" Nabiki asked quickly with narrowed eyes. "Because that sort of misplaced guilt almost got me killed once."

"Hel should not have been allowed to remain on the battlefield," Natsume said. "I should have been more aware, it was my responsibility."

"Responsibility is not the same as fault, the fault is that of the one who made the fight necessary," Kasumi noted quietly looking at one of the pictures. "This is a good one."

"Oh yes," Akane said a bit too eagerly. "She'd taken the Championship in one of the old Indian tournaments."

"Is it traditional for a shrine photo to be giving a victory sign?" Natsume asked cautiously. "Aren't they usually more serene?"

Kasumi set the picture aside to start a collection of possibles.

"This is Kurumi we're talking about," Nabiki reminded them mildly, the corners of her mouth twitching vaguely as she blinked rapidly three times. "Serenity wasn't worthy of her."

Natsume chuckled briefly.

"I am not sure whether or not that works out to a compliment, Nabiki," she said.

"I like this one," Akane said, fanning herself as if she were hot despite the cool breeze and wiping a hand over her forehead and down her cheek.

"We should make an attempt to see if she has any loved ones," Kasumi noted again, holding a picture of Kurumi playing with Akane's children. "If she has a child that she hasn't told us about..."

"I can't imagine she would be quiet about anything like that," Nabiki said softly. "And the last time we saw her, she was practically terrified of the concept, remember?"

"Yes, she did have all sorts of strange ideas about what being pregnant was like," Kasumi said with a sigh. "I suppose I was simply hoping that there might be someone more than us. Nabiki's child will never get to know her now."

"We can tell him about her," Nabiki said softly. "It isn't the same...not...not close, but that is something we can do."

"She would have been a good mother," Akane said.

Kasumi sneezed momentarily, and took a deep breath.

"Pardon me," she said. "I must be a bit dusty from the train."

Natsume nodded.

"It will be hard to live up to what she did...at the end," the martial artist said.

"Death is lighter a than feather," Akane noted, closing her eyes. "Duty is heavier than a mountain."

"Death is lighter than a feather," Nabiki agreed, tapping her fingers on the floor. "Duty is heavier than a mountain."

"Death is lighter than a feather," Kasumi said, looking at another picture of Kurumi smiling broadly. "Duty is heavier than a mountain."

"Death is lighter than a feather," Natsume repeated finally. "Duty is heavier than a mountain."

Natsume wiped a tear from her cheek.

* * *

Colonel O'Neil opened the door to the cell that held their guest and noticed her sitting in the middle of the room, dressed in a sports bra and running shorts. Her skin was covered in several places by what looked like blue paint, forming intricate designs. She breathed in and out idly.

"This Socrates Group of yours is quite impressive," Morrigan said, eyes still closed. "I noticed you have several examples of some of the minor races here. Was that a succubus I saw? I had thought they were extinct in the inquisition."

"You mean Vala?" O'Neil asked.

"As I remember, Vala was a rather irritating woman with black hair," Morrigan said. "The succubus I mentioned was the secretary who saw me, screamed out 'Oh God, it's the Phantom Queen!' and went to hide in the ladies room for an hour."

"Anything you can do to shed a light on that?" O'Neil asked.

"Succubi descend from Demon and human hybrids," Morrigan said. "The Einherjar command felt they might be used against us."

"So you killed them all," the colonel said judgmentally.

"Obviously not all," Morrigan said. "And they apparently kept a good description of me, that child didn't look older than twenty and I know that species is not Immortal."

"You know, I have a problem with someone that can so blithely admit to genocide," O'Neil noted.

Morrigan opened her eyes and looked over toward him with a sigh.

"Even if I were to unseal those memories and live through them," she said pointedly. "It wouldn't be more than like watching a movie. For me, it is a fact in a history book. There is no direct emotional connection."

"And you think this whole memory wipe thing absolves you of your sins?" O'Neil asked.

"There was once a woman named Linea who had committed crimes like mine," Morrigan noted. "And I believe you have a woman named Ke'ra under observation."

"It tends to seem like a cheat when you inflict that sort of thing on purpose to get out of such things," the colonel said. "That's not the sort of thing you can magically wipe away."

She closed her eyes again and pointed her head straight.

"I didn't become Catholic because I felt good about myself for some of my history book," she noted. "Did you come to ask me about my past? Or did you perhaps have something else on your mind?"

"We've got word about the people the president wanted us to contact for you," he said. "There's going to be some kind of meeting in Japan in the next couple of days. Apparently they mostly already there, just waiting until some local funeral to happen before they hold the meeting."

"I think I told you the effort would happen around them," Morrigan said with a smile. "Hang up some laundry and I can be out of your hair immediately."

"Yeah," O'Neil said. "No, we're going to be sending some people along with you."

"Who might that be?" she asked.

"Jackson, me, people...with names, and ranks," O'Neil said vaguely.

"Go ahead and ask," she said.

"Blue?" O'Neil said.

"Woad," Morrigan noted. "I'm getting ready for battle."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but that sort of stuff makes you high by wearing it on your skin," the colonel noted.

"Sadly, this is not one of the poisons that can affect me," Morrigan said with a sigh. "I merely place it on for tradition's sake."

"Uh huh," O'Neil said. "Well, we'll be ready to take you and your friends to Japan as soon as possible."

"Friends?" she asked.

"Mithril personnel brought a refugee group in with one of our teams," O'Neil said. "One of you Gods or Demons was in their unit."

"That would be either Naiki Satomi or Eija Satomi," Morrigan said. "I am surprised their mother would let them act on missions as such. What color were the marks, red or blue?"

"Green."

Morrigan's eyes snapped open and turned about to stare at O'Neil as her jaw dropped open.

"I take it that's not something you were expecting."

* * *

Keiichi and Belldandy sat on the edge of the walkway, sitting close together. The Goddess's grey hair and slightly taller form leaning against Keichi and wrapping an arm around him as his wrapped around her.

"It'll be okay, Bell," Keiichi said. "It'll be okay. We've had bad stuff before."

"Is it selfish of me to be so appalled that Gods and Demons are dying when humans die everyday?" Belldandy asked.

"Belldandy, you're appalled when someone trips over a dog," Keiichi said. "You just don't like seeing people hurt. Neither do I."

"I don't know how to do this Keiichi," Belldandy said. "This isn't a renegade program like the Lord of Terror. This isn't some accident. It isn't...it isn't Hild. I acted like I knew what I was going to do but...I don't know about...war."

"Do you have to get involved?" Keiichi asked.

Belldandy stayed very quiet and nodded slowly, leaning against his shoulder.

"If I don't...people might be hurt that otherwise wouldn't be," the middle Norn said.

The fact that as a category 1 Goddess, she was immediately a target regardless of her decision didn't enter her mind for a moment. And Keiichi knew that it didn't.

"Whatever you decide will be the best course," Keiichi said. "You always know what's right, even when you don't know you know."

"Thank you, Keiichi," Belldandy said quietly.

He took a deep breath.

"Chihiro and I are thinking of developing the Sciricco for the Mithril people that have been talking to her," he admitted finally. "We weren't going to at first, but...with everything and with the Goddess thing in the open..."

Belldandy took a deep breath.

"If you didn't, people might get hurt who otherwise wouldn't have," Belldandy said after a moment. "Nothing stays the same after this."

"But we can face it all together," Keiichi said blushing and looking aside as he handed a small box over to her.

"Keiichi?" Belldandy said sitting up and taking the box and opening it.

Inside was a silver ring with a milky, translucent opal that seemed to shine in many colors.

"I...I guess I figure that everything else has been done," the engineer said. "Well, except...that."

He and Belldandy both blushed deeper and then laughed nervously in unison.

"I...I..." Belldandy took a deep breath and looked around to see if anybody was watching before she continued in a semi-giddy whisper. "We'd be the first. Cross species marriage."

"Really?" Keiichi asked. "With all the half-Gods and half-Demons and so on?"

"Nothing official or ceremonial," Belldandy said. "Even in the Doublet fortress."

"So uh..." Keiichi stuttered.

"Oh, yes!" Belldandy said loudly and then quieting down again. "Yes. Wh...when should we...?"

"How soon do you think?" Keiichi asked.

"Urd is attending...a funeral soon," the Goddess noted. "Soon after that? Just us and some friends?"

"After that then," Keiichi said

* * *

Natsume kneeled at the front of the mourners just ahead of the three women who were born Tendos and their family. Arranged behind them were a handful of martial artists that had heard about the woman's fall and come to pay their respects. Soun Tendo sat beside them, ignoring Ranma and her children for the moment to focus on his own adoptive daughter.

Ranma was dressed in a highly tasteful woman's suit. Naiki was immediately at her side, having been involved in the battle directly. The Demoness was sporting several bandages, still, following her involvement in the battle with Poseidon, but they were mostly under the suit that she had put on for the occasion.

Eija, Sousuke and Kaname had arrived out of respect for their mother's friend and for Naiki's support. They kneeled somewhere back behind the people that had actually known or fought with Kurumi, and remained quietly attentive as the Shinto priest continued the ritual. Eija was fidgiting quietly, hoping nobody noticed but wondering why she felt a bit on edge.

Mao, leaning on a temporary cane and standing beside the surviving members of the infantry that had been with them with them in the fight against Hecate, stood in a good approximation of attention. Had not one hand been on her cane and the other in a sling, she would have been saluting.

Tessa stood there with a bandage around her ankle and a cast about her broken arm. Mardukas stood behind her, looking more somber than usual. Both of them having earlier attended to the group funeral for their own troops lost in the recent action.

Persephone stood beside Urd and Mara, all three in the robes of their station. Only Persephone was mildly distracted as she looked around, feeling as if something was out of place, somehow. The worry about that was not often on her face, but could flashes of it could be seen.

Deimosu sat near Ranma, noting that several of the Demons and the couple of Gods there had turned to look at him with a mix of curiosity and anger. Yonjuu stood next to him, apparently visiting back from the Labyrinth, or else having trusted that Yaku was safe there.

Hel was sitting, uncomfortably so, a little behind Natsume, her crutch by her side as she listened to the ritual proceeding with nothing at all like boredom. She was nervous and ashamed, especially as she looked around to see the various people that had come to the funeral.

Eventually, as the ashes of her body were collect, Kurumi's sisters were called forward to help collect the ashes and unburnt bones to place within the urn for her grave. The bones were collected with chopsticks, handled by each of the four women with grave respect and undisplayed but thick emotion until all that remained of the body was put into the urn.

And then a fraction of the ashes was presented to each sister, into the four urns that they had brought with them. Each one for the family shrine of one of the four remaining sisters, even though Nabiki did not yet have her own place.

Quietly, the family urns were handed back to the sister's husbands and set down behind them, with everyone watching the sisters, wondering why they had not yet sat down even as the ritual came to an end.

Natsume held out her hand, still without a replacement prosthetic, palm open. Kasumi pulled out a small knife and placed it in Natsume's palm, holding the knife as her adopted sister pulled her hand across the edge.

Then Kasumi took the knife and slashed it across her own palm as Natsume held her bleeding fist out over the ground in front of the temple shrine where the priest kneelled there watching in a bit of confusion.

Kasumi passed the knife to Nabiki and held her fist out with Natsume's as Nabiki slashed her palm and passed the knife on to Akane.

As the fourth fist was held out Akane looked to the left and held the knife, handle out, toward where Hel was sitting nearby. The Demoness stared in shock and confusion before struggling to her feet and accepting the knife.

Akane and the other sisters had started to look away before Hel, looking about with a look of surface confidence, also took the knife and cut her palm open with it, drawing back several looks.

The surprise of the four women was as evident at this act as most of the mourners had been when Natsume and Kasumi had first slashed their palms open.

"Okay," Akane said, reaching her open hand out to help bring Hel over to stand by Natsume.

The one-armed martial artist glanced down at the Demoness with an appraising look and continued to hold her bleeding hand out.

They held position for what seemed like ten minutes before turning about and moving back to sit down, letting the priest bring the ritual to an end. The knife was left in the ground in front of the temple shrine, much to the priest's consternation.

As the crowd started to file out, Naiki pushed forward to the shrine and took the knife out of the ground to slash her own palm open while everyone watched her. One of Mao's troops followed her and then one of the Demons. Tofu, Ryouga and Ryuu were next to take the knife, though Ryouga had difficulty cutting his hand without destroying the knife.

Urd determinedly took the knife next, handing the knife over to Mara. and on to Mao, who smirked as she cut her palm and flipped the finger in the direction of first the sky and then the ground.

Ranma stepped forward next, adding her blood to the small pool that was feeding the ground in front of what would be the temple to hold Kurumi's grave. And then Eija and Sousuke cut their palms calmly and cleanly. Kaname hesitated and gingerly did the same before passing the knife on.

Deimosu who ignored any of the eyes on him as he added his blood to the mix. Yonjuu followed him, wincing and shaking her hand a bit after the slice before holding the bleeding palm over the same spot.

Finally, Tessa reached out to take the knife, but was stopped at first by Mardukas who opened his own palm first, cleaned the blade of all the blood that he could and held it out to Tessa to use, her broken arm currently just being in the way.

Silently, Eija put forth a last effort out as people finally started to leave the blood soaked ground without another person coming up.

The blood seemed to coalesce and crystalize into the ground, forming a kanji out of what seemed to be jewels.

"One of Us."

* * *

Urd and Mara were standing together for another ceremony within eight hours. One which Mara held some lingering irritation and disappointment over, even as she consented to witness. Skuld, too, was less than certain of the wisdom behind this, but didn't interrupt no matter how much she wanted to.

Aside from them, Chihiro, Megumi and the rest of Belldandy and Keiichi's friends from Nekomi and the like were sitting in little foldout chairs listening a small shinto priest perform the rituals of marriage over Belldandy and Keiichi both.

Mara shook her head and smiled in spite of herself and the lingering urge to disrupt things according to her old mission.

"Nothing stays the same after this," she whispered.

* * *

Author's Notes:

This got so long because I wanted to end this part on this funeral.

Going to have some breather bits here, like the rest and relaxation set, and then we'll see...


	35. Crossing of Purposes

_What are you doing here?_ Deimosu asked mentally as they walked toward the train station after the wake had winded down to a close.

_Sanya is watching Yaku,_ Yonjuu said.

She paused a moment and considered.

"You know this is odd," she said. "I got used to that very quickly."

"Yeah, it's pretty convenient," the blonde said nodding. "At least without the background noise."

He glared at the back of Kaname's head where she was chatting herself with Eija, the sensation of her echo not really bothering him too much, aside from the fact that it was Kaname. Sousuke and Kaname where standing on either side of Eija, just in case she was still a bit unstable from the battle with Poseidon.

The blue-haired girl turned around to narrow her eyes at Deimosu.

"I am not causing trouble here, buddy," she said firmly.

"I do see both of my sisters beat up," Deimosu noted angrily.

"Deimosu!" Eija snapped back. "That was unavoidable."

"Yeah, that was my fault," Naiki said, stretching out and checking her bandages.

"It still seems to me that every time Eija gets hurt then you're around," Deimosu noted.

"I suppose that is fortunate," Sousuke noted idly. "Given it means that there is someone to be there for her at least."

"Ha, good one, soldier-boy," Naiki said with a laugh.

She paused and then looked toward Sousuke again.

"Wait a minute," she protested. "I'm there for Eija!"

Kaname and Eija stopped cold and stared ahead, looking nervous, while Sousuke snapped to attention. Naiki and Deimosu turned to look forward, coming to a stop in their stride as they found their mother standing there and staring back at them with her arms crossed.

Yonjuu came to a much slower stop though she recognized the look of authority on the slightly shorter woman's face.

"Umm, Miss Satomi," Yonjuu asked.

"Chidori-san, Soldier-boy," she said. "You get my girls up to the train. I'll be there in a little bit."

"Yes, Ma'am," Sousuke said, saluting.

"I don't need hel...ow, ow," Naiki said as she hopped along.

"Really, You're bullet proof and you can't handle a stubbed toe?" Kaname asked tsking.

They still moved quickly ahead as Ranma turned and started walking slowly, encouraging Deimosu and Yonjuu to walk alongside.

"You're going to be seeing a lot of Kaname and Sousuke," Ranma said simply. "So I'd appreciate it if you kept a lid on your disapproval around them."

"She blew Eija up!" Deimosu protested.

"Months ago, and that was actually Sousuke, on accident," Ranma said. "Since then Kaname's been very good for her, both of them really. Eija goes out places now and does things...when there aren't life and death battles at least. I like that she has people she can trust and who I can trust to do anything to protect her."

Deimosu frowned and narrowed his eyes.

_Why am I here?_ Yonjuu asked Deimosu.

"Because he'll likely leak it out to you anyway," Ranma noted.

_Can she hear what I'm saying?_ Yonjuu asked pointing at her.

"No, I can't," Ranma said.

_But..._ at this point Yonjuu was looking highly disturbed and confused.

"Deimosu, this girl has a worse poker face than I do," Ranma noted. "Gotta watch that."

_Huh, but, whu?_

_Don't worry about it,_ Deimosu said. _I think it's a mother thing._

"Then again it might just be a mother thing," Ranma noted.

Deimosu sighed and dropped his head.

_Why..._"...excuse me," the blonde Satomi said. "Why is Yonjuu with us?"

"Because she's going to be staying with us," Ranma said. "The warehouse should be a bit more clear, so we're going to have room for another four."

"Four?" Deimosu asked, hesitantly. "What four?""

* * *

"Why were you chosen for this honor," Morrigan asked Nimu finally after some time of silence and staring at her across from the plane.

"My...former mistress desires my body," Nimu said. "These are supposed to make sure she can't have it."

"You're talking about a spirit merger?" Morrigan noted.

"Spirit merger," the Air Force colonel asked.

"Resonance sir," Carter said. "It was mentioned in the brief that making too much use of Resonance produces a sort of blending. Like mixing paint together."

"That's what was explained to me," Nimu said.

"Spirit merger makes more sense as a term," Jack said. "And I hate agreeing with the flipping Goddess of Terror here."

"Bloodshed," Morrigan corrected.

"Whatever," Jack said.

"I find it interesting that you persist in posing as a false god," a tall, dark skinned man said in a noted term. He looked predominately human, but was quite a bit larger than anybody else in the plane.

"I am not a false god, troll," Morrigan said idly.

"You can die, can you not?" the "troll" asked.

"Never denied it," she commented.

"Are you all powerful or all knowing?" he continued.

"Of course not," Morrigan said. "Or we wouldn't need help."

"Then how can you claim to be a supreme being?" the troll asked.

"I've never claimed to be the Creator of the universe," Morrigan said. "We started to interact with you," and she gestured around at the various humans, "and you called us 'God', eventually we just kept having to respond to that and it became the name of the species. As far as I am concerned, the definition of 'God' is my species. And since I am a member of my species, I am not a false god."

She narrowed her eyes.

"I refuse to apologize because we abandoned our own cultural heritage in order to fit where you wanted us to fit," Morrigan said.

"Indeed," the troll said idly.

"Oi this is going to be a long flight," Jack said.

And it was, well up to where the plane finally landed and taxied to a stop at the military base on Japan.

Nimu pulled her luggage up to her shoulder and started to walk off of the plane down onto the American military base along with Kurz Weber, the two PRTs had stayed back in the hospital to be transferred over to Mithril's American facilities later.

Morrigan frowned as she slipped down the ramp herself, folding her arms.

"I could have gotten here much easier myself," she noted over her shoulder.

"You already know the answer to that," O'Neil said coming off the plane.

"It might have been an interesting chance to study the process, sir," a woman with short blonde hair noted.

"I am not going to hold her hand and prance through the laundry like some wimp in a musical," Jack said.

"Jack," the civilian Doctor started to say.

"Not doing it," O'Neil repeated.

"Well," Kurz said. "You guys have quarters here, I believe. The rest of us have our own places to go."

"Right, right," Jack said, waving them off. "Go, be happy little eternal life people."

"I haven't thought about it yet," Kurz said with a smirk. "For now I kind of like staying human thank you."

And with that, he and Nimu left the airfield.

"I shall see you at this meeting," Morrigan said. "For now I believe, I have to report to my superiors."

And with that she started walking away from both groups.

"Yeah, I don't suppose you mind..."

"Taking one of you with me," Morrigan noted dryly. "What a surprise. One of you must be aware that I can just leave without you stopping me."

"Yeah," Carter said. "We do apologize for the situation. I guess if you had showed up in someone else's laundry room besides the White House."

"Yes, you do have that point," Morrigan said. "Which is why I have been patient, but patience wears thin."

* * *

Tessa looked over the papers on the table in front of her and then across at the holograms facing her.

"What is your status?" Sir Mallory asked.

"Regarding the four recent actions," Tessa said, picking up her files. "You can see my casualty list for enemy and ally as well as ourselves. The conflict with Hecate DisPater is regarded a victory, indications are that could have gone much worse if she hadn't underestimated our capabilities. The biological weapons plant is also considered a victory in and of itself, note my concerns regarding infiltration. The benefits of the Canadian operation are still being considered, but we had two casualties, neither KIA, so it is at least not disaster. The attack by Poseidon is also a victory."

"Several of your SRTs are on medical leave or light duty," the tactical commander said. "And the Danaan is in dry dock for what looks like a month."

"We could be ready for limited emergency operations in as little as twelve hours," Tessa noted.

"And the paranormal assets?" Intelligence asked.

"Naiki Satomi is more of a contact than an asset," Tessa noted. "What I have from her superior is two weeks minimum, light duty. Eija Satomi should be recovered within the next week. Kaname Chidori is unscathed. Nimu Ichi and her sisters, I'm still recommending an extended training period before they are put into action again."

"Ichi reportedly did well in Canada, going by both Weber's and the American report," Zhuge said from his position, rankling some of the other division heads by his presence still.

"She's correct," the tactical leader said. "Our estimates are that the training on the Ni's is almost non-existent. Nimu Ichi is experienced, but could use some polishing."

"Is that why she's been housed with Satomi," Mallory asked.

"If I could note," the Intelligence director said. "Nimu Ichi might provide us with a route to acquire certain resources."

"You're referring to the Kuno family resources," Mallory said.

"My recommendation is to hold off on trying that," Tessa said. "That will bring Kodachi Kuno out, and while we want to do that eventually, we are not prepared currently. Nimu would have to be much better trained than current and I'd like to have fewer people on medical leave and light duty."

"Agreed," Sir Mallory said. "Start drawing up a plan of operation however."

The Intelligence division head nodded.

"We've already started," he said.

"And the question that we've been avoiding to now," Sir Mallory said. "Project Ainur, how do we plan to deal with this?"

"Captain Tessa seems to be setting up her own little empire in this," Intelligence noted.

"I am loyal to this organization, its ideals and its leaders," Tessa noted fiercely.

"There is no question that you have fulfilled all your objectives," the tactical division said. "However, it does seem that we should be looking at creating a fo...excuse me, fifth division."

"I would not advise that," Tessa said.

"Can you give your reasons?" Sir Mallory asked.

"Separation based on species will result in a lack of efficiency," Tessa said. "We'd have to redivide all the Ainur into duplicates of the existing divisions. In addition, we have vulnerabilities. As we have already seen, the network can be attacked directly and incapacitate any or all elements of that network."

"You'd create a preferred team A which has the possibility of being taken out of action in whole," the Intelligence operative noted. "Leaving you with a Team B that is probably both less trained and less experienced."

"It has been Psyche policy to requisition a tactical unit in cases where a team is expected to be needed," Zhuge said. "Psionics and the like have clear vulnerabilities. Very few have as versatile an array of abilities as Ranma Satomi or myself."

"The Gods and Demons have no choice but to organize that way," Tessa said. "Unless they fully integrate into society, because that's all that's left of their species. Also note that they feel it necessary to interact with humanity on a regular basis in order to stay grounded."

"But you do suggest that all Whispered we can offer the process too should go through it," Sir Mallory suggested.

"Regarding again, the file Kodachi Kuno, who has a limited variation of the Whispered trait," Tessa said. "Any Whispered has the potential to become what she is just on accident. This process is the only safe way for both variations of humanity to interact on a regular basis. It is really the only way we can be sure we, as an individuals, would survive at all in the long term."

"How successful is the process," Research asked.

"I have so far only offered it to a limited number of individuals," Tessa said. "What information I have from Persephone Dispater and Mara Geisthexe is that it works on almost anybody with psionic ability or significant training in using either magic or chi and on less than one percent of other individuals. Tests indicate our variation follows the success rate of metas, not enough tests yet for others."

"I see it worked on both Sergeant Major Mao and Sergeant Sagara," someone noted.

"It did not work on Ranma Satomi," Tessa noted.

"Director Satomi is a highly anomalous individual," Zhuge noted.

"Unfortunately, actually working on your Silmaril's coding so far requires Whispered or Ainur," Research said. "Which means that we are going to have at least one unit that is almost all Ainur."

"We know that trained humans can access a network," Tessa said. "It has traditionally been called magic. I think we might be able to find a work around to the vulnerability of a full Ainur staff eventually. The only remaining problem is the issue of the desirable side-effect."

"The end of aging," Sir Mallory noted. "Indeed and with it working on so few...but that is more of a political issue."

"I am curious as to why Kaname Chidori has not...'ascended' yet," Tactical noted.

"It's in her report," Intelligence said, lifting it up and turning it to the appropriate page. "A rogue element in the Whispers. Described by Eija Satomi as a dead spirit."

"Our last encounter with her severely hurt Naiki Satomi," Tessa said. "Eija has so far been able to handle this entity, but I don't doubt the next encounter will be much more dangerous. She wants Kaname for some reason. Which leads me to believe that Kaname is already more than just another Whispered."

"And currently, you are not able to withstand an attack with total confidence," Mallory noted. "All right, I believe this meeting shall be concluded. Ainur are to be included with the regular ranks and treated as per normal until a need is proven otherwise."

* * *

"I am Sanya San Pillar of Strength of the San batch," Sanya declared loudly and proudly as she stared up at the green-haired girl that was looking down at her.

"I don't care if you're Lucky Number Slevin," Naiki said. "This is my room. Your room is back over there."

"Ha, you can't possibly realize, but I put first claim to this room two days ago," the younger girl noted.

"I've lived here for almost a year!" Naiki snapped back. "Get your stuff out of here now or you're going to get a spanking."

"I am not going to budge before an..."

"Sanya," Nimu said sharply. "I told you, you couldn't have that room."

"But..." Sanya said, pointing. "There are some cool things in here."

"Those are mine," Naiki protested.

"Naiki, why are you yelling at a fourteen year old at the top of your lungs?" Ranma asked casually.

"She's trying to take my room," Naiki said.

"Nimu, do you mind?" Ranma asked.

"Mind?" the older of the girls asked. "What are you going to do?"

Ranma walked into the room in question, noted the small group of items that didn't look like they belonged to Naiki and started gathering them up.

"Hey, that's my stuff?" Sanya protested stepping in the doorway and getting ready to block Ranma from getting out.

Of course, when the redhead simply picked her up and slung her up over her shoulder along with the stuff, it sort of upset her plans.

Naiki quickly got out of the way of her mother as she came out into the center area of the warehouse and then marched with a shocked Sanya all the way to the apartments that had been set up for the newcomers.

"You can't do this to me?" Sanya protested. "I'm Sanya San of the San Branch. I'm stronger than everybody so you can't."

Sanya found herself deposited on the bed in the room that had been set aside for her and then had her stuff, clothes mostly, dumped over her.

Nimu was in the doorway then staring a bit in confusion as Ranma stepped back and folded her arms, waiting for Sanya to extricate herself from the bed and make an angry declaration.

"How can you! How can you!" she demanded, stepping forward and hauling off with a heavy blow as Nimu tried to tell her to stop.

Ranma grabbed the strike and stopped it cold, a sudden brief wind washing over her body and blowing her hair back momentarily.

"Kinetic strength," Ranma said. "That'll be interesting."

"How did you...?" Sanya asked.

"Can you listen now?" Ranma asked patiently.

"Umm...yes...?" Sanya said.

"Nimu is your legal guardian, but this is my property," Ranma said. "You are guests here. I am not going to see guests behaving in an unruly manner. I saw too much of that as a kid. If you behave unruly, I'll behave unruly, and if gets to unruly only one person wins and that's not you."

"Nimu?" Sanya said in a huff.

Nimu was just staring with a little smirk on her face.

"It makes sense to me," she said, crossing her arms.

"Good," Ranma said. "Now, get your stuff put up and we'll talk about chores and training in the front room."

"Training?" Sanya said, blinking. "Real training?"

She looked hopefully toward Nimu.

"That's part of why we're here," she said.

"OH HOHOHO!" Sanya laughed out, leaning back and puffing out her chest while putting a hand to her mouth.

Ranma winced and cricked her neck.

"She inherited the laugh," Ranma sighed.

* * *

"I'm curious as to what all this is about," a woman said as she started picking through the buffet. "Usually we don't gather so many all together like this. Though it is nice to be in town and look normal for once."

Said woman was one of a handful of the minor races, as indicated by the ears trio of fox tails she had.

"Looking human gets so tiring after a while," she said, pausing to swallow down a couple grapes. "No offense."

She looked across the table at the woman on the other end, who had pale skin and long blonde hair, somewhat frayed in appearance and with three red marks on her face.

"None taken, I'm not human," Mara said, picking up something she recognized as one of Belldandy's dishes and licked her lips.

"Oh...vampyr or dhampil?" the kitsune asked. "The Harker family?"

"No, I'm not a blood-drinking human offshoot," Mara said, "nor was one of my parents a soul-rending undead abomination that my mother happened to survive an encounter with."

"Then what are you, some sort of society," the kitsune asked. "I've seen a lot of you around."

"I'm a Demon," Mara said simply.

"Right, that's what the uneducated masses call you," the kitsune said. "But what are you really, or do you just not know?"

Mara sighed.

"No, that's not what the uneducated masses call me," she said. "It's what I am. I am a Demon."

"Demon," the kitsune said hesitantly. "Immortal."

"Right," Mara said.

"Source of all the Black Magic," the kitsune noted.

"Well, certain spells anyway," she noted.

"The Demons that make deals with the forces of evil," she repeated again.

"And usually end up getting them killed in a variety of ironic ways," Mara said.

"Which Demon are you exactly?" she asked.

"Yes, you owe me favors, I note the plural," Mara said. "No, I'm not going to collect right now."

"Excuse me," she said nervously. "I'm going to go stand by the uh, exorcist over there."

"If you think it'll make you more comfortable," Mara said shrugging.

As the kitsune walked away, Mara went back to picking herself a plate of dishes. She was poking through the brisket, trying to pick out one that was as bloody as she liked it when a man walked forward and leaned over to whisper to her.

"You should be careful talking to that one," he said. "She's kind of an ends justifying the means type, uses a lot of black magic."

Mara rolled her eyes and straightened her back before turning to face the guy. He was tall with a mix of Chinese and Caucasian features and she noted an Egyptian heiroglyph tattoo on one wrist.

"Really," she said. "I didn't know that. You never know who's going to show up to this sort of thing, do you?"

* * *

"Hello," Belldandy said giving a helping of rice and chicken to the person in front of her. "Thank you for coming."

The man glanced across at her cautiously, taking in her facial markings and narrowing his eyes thoughtfully. He was a rather plain looking Korean man that was rather well built and moved fairly gracefully.

"You're related to these people that appeared out of nowhere, aren't you?" he said.

"Well, yes," Belldandy said. "But I already lived here."

"So, I guess you know something about what's going on," he said.

"Yes," Belldandy said. "But I believe Miss Satomi wants to be able to broach that subject first."

"Makes sense, cuts down on rumors," the man said. "Always something, isn't it."

"Well, most of my life to now has been pretty quiet," Belldandy said. "I've only had a couple of incidents in the past. I...I'm rather hoping I prove useful in this."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about it," the man said. "I recognize some of the names and faces I've heard, and if you got invited to this crowd, then you've got to be pretty hefty. Just trust in the Gods to see us through this."

"Uhh...I suppose so," Belldandy said hesitantly.

Keiichi walked up to her side then and she turned toward him with a beaming smile as he put down a cooler beside her.

"Got more sodas and the sparkling water, Bell," he said cheerily.

"Oh, thank you, Keiichi...dear," she said, gripping his hand tightly and just seeming to boil over as she did so, face blushing brightly as she resisted the urge to giggle.

"Dear..." Keiichi said wonderingly as their hands intertwined.

"Newlyweds?" the man Bell had been talking to asked.

"Yeah," Keiichi said, flushing himself and scratching the back of his head.

"I hope the Gods bless your union with happiness." he said with a smile.

"Of that, I am sure," Keiichi said.

"Definitely," Belldandy noted.

Urd walked up behind the two and smirked.

"Oh, I think a particular Goddess blessed their union at least three or four times last night," Urd said as both newlyweds turned almost violet with embarrassment and closed their mouths tight. "Very loud blessing even."

A light bulb above them exploded and Urd looked up with an arched eyebrow.

"All right, I'll leave you alone," she said smiling. "About time though."

* * *

"You were saying that this meeting was called by Saotome," a woman that looked very much like Akane Saotome said. "And I assumed you meant the so-called Phoenix-Slayer."

"You implied this to me as well, Herb," a severely beautiful woman with an unsmiling face and long purple hair said.

She wore her hair longer and dressed in Chinese clothes, and didn't have the same scars. However, they could have been twins.

Herb pointed to a red-headed woman dressed in a red power suit who was speaking to a nerdy looking woman who was enthusiastically taking down notes. Next to them was another woman in the uniform of a Mithril mercenary, leaning on a cane and wearing a sling.

The Akane-look-alike and the woman with purple hair glanced over toward the woman and thought nothing of it at first. It was just another of the assorted martial artists, at least by the way she moved, in the office.

However as they looked closer and started to see certain familiar facial features in the woman's face. Slowly, the fact of the woman's identity dawned on them.

The expression on the purple haired woman was easily the most amusing to Herb, especially given their respective tribes.

Ryuu Kumon walked over to the three, he took in the staring expressions of both Kiima and Shampoo and followed their line of site.

"Did you mention she has three kids yet?" he asked.

"This is not happening," Shampoo said. "This is not possible."

"Ranma Saotome is not allowed to be a parent before I'm married," Kiima protested. "Much less a mother."

"Hey, look Konatsu," Ukyou said as she walked over to join the group. "Martial Arts Spinsters."

The entire group of them felt a sudden chill and looked up to see Ranma staring across the room at them.

"Let's calm down," Herb noted.

"This sounds like a wise decision," Kiima agreed.

"This can't be happening," Shampoo repeated.

* * *

Morrigan was watching Belldandy and Keiichi and noting the rings around their fingers and wondering what the heck she was supposed to think about that.

Companions weren't unusual. And long term Demon-God inter-relations were common now.

But marriage?

Nor was she certain about what Belldandy was planning to do. The other Gods were following the Norns' example, however, so there wasn't much she could say about it.

She'd held off on giving the news about Kami-sama yet, not wanting to further darken Belldandy's good mood. Though she suspected her lack of statements on that matter was...telling.

* * *

Ranma walked over to where the Socrates Group personnel were standing and held out her hand with a casual smile.

"I hear you guys are the Socrates Group people," she said in a friendly tone.

"What gave it away?" O'Neil asked taking her hand as she gave a slight bow.

"The USAF uniforms and Miss Ichi lives at my home," she said.

"Ahhh," O'Neil said. "You're running the show here for Mithril and Psyche?"

"Yeah, Ranma Satomi" Ranma said pointing over her shoulder.

"Colonel Jack O'Neil," the Air Force colonel said.

Ranma nodded and then moved toward Major Carter.

"Major Samantha Carter," the blonde noted, Ranma blinked. "Something wrong?"

"No, I just expected a British accent," the martial artist noted.

"Yeah, I've been told I look like her," the Major said.

Daniel stepped forward then to shake hands.

"Dr. Daniel Jackson," he said.

"I have heard of your prowess, Ranma Satomi," the tall dark-skinned man said. "I am Teal'c, it is an honor to meet you."

"Think I've heard that name myself," Ranma said.

"So, you've got quite a few well known names here," Jackson said, pointing around. "O'Connor's family is known for being skilled against undead. There are several families of Shinto priests. The Kamiya Kasshin school."

"And I see more Gods and Demons over there," O'Neil noted. "So, are we going to get our information soon?"

"Mithril's already reported the basics to the US," Ranma said. "But we got some new information for you in just a moment."

* * *

As more of the called parties arrived and the buffet table started to grow a little bare, the various mystics, martial artists and exorcists started to find seats in the conference room as Ranma moved to the front and collected his notes.

"I hope you enjoyed the food," Ranma said calmly.

"It was heavenly," someone noted.

"I can believe it," the redhead said, mouth twitching. "I'm Ranma Satomi. I'm the Regional Director for Northeast Asia with Psyche."

There was some muttering at that.

"Even if you haven't worked with us in the past, you know Psyche's reputation," Ranma noted. "Psyche's made a mission of funding the champions of good against supernatural evils quietly and pointing them out to trouble spots for a few years now."

She glanced behind her to the screen and gestured back for it to be switched on. The lights came down and the white screen was filled with a recorded image of hundreds of men, women and children appearing in runic circles of bright light or bursts of smoke.

"The one-percent point has been coming quickly the last ten years," Ranma said. "This just put us over the edge. Everybody on Earth is starting to see us now. A lot are talking aliens right now, but it's coming. All the stuff we've managed to keep down as a rumor is going to get noticed."

Someone stood up momentarily and raised a hand before talking, not waiting to be invited to talk.

"And so this meeting is about what, public relations?" he asked. "Most governments know about this stuff already and we already know which are friendly to paranormals and which you don't want to step one inch in."

Ranma shook her head.

"Public relations is someone else's problem," Ranma said. "Okay, no, it isn't. It's my problem, but it's not the problem we're here to talk about today."

"And that problem is?" someone asked.

"Why did two hundred thousand people feel the need to appear on Earth out of nowhere?" someone asked.

"Correct," Ranma said. "That's the thing. They're clearly running from something and I can tell you its not a natural disaster."

"So what is it?" a question came.

"This is where you're going to have to bear with me a bit," the red-head noted, she gestured again and the image froze on two separate pictures.

Mao noted that the images Ranma had chosen were of Demons and Gods in childhood and looking decidedly upset and frantic.

The redhead walked to the screen and pointed first to the picture of the child with blue marks.

"God."

The Korean martial artist blinked and looked toward where Belldandy and Keiichi were sitting.

And then the child with red marks.

"Demon."

Mara waved at the man with the Egyptian heirogylph as he turned to look at her.

That provoked a lot of muttering and consideration.

"You must be joking," someone said, laughing.

"There are magicians here," Ranma said. "Have you noticed a change in the way spells work recently?"

People looked about a bit nervously.

"Spellcasting is sluggish, at best, isn't it," Ranma said. "Spells are glitching or failing enact. And some are just gone, nothing left but fancy words."

"You're saying something kicked Gods and Demons out of Heaven and Hell?" someone asked. "Are we talking about Cthulhu or something."

"No, we're talking about rebellion," Ranma said. "There are elements of both groups that decided the current leadership was too friendly with humanity and wanted to go back to the old way of doing things."

There was some whispering at that.

"For Gods, that means instead of acting guiding lights or guardian angels," Ranma said, "that they've decided we need to bow and scrape and basically be their playthings."

The vehemence and bitterness of the statement was not missed.

"For Demons, that means instead of a bunch of brimstone and fire vigilantes," Ranma said. "We have xenocidal maniacs who think this is their planet and we need to get off."

Ranma gestured for the screen to change again and it revealed four images, one Goddess and three Demonesses.

"These are our masterminds," she noted. "The Goddess Hecate was killed in action not to long ago at a cost of several lives including Kurumi Tendo. Some of you may have been at her funeral earlier in the week."

She moved on to the other three.

"These are the Furies," Ranma said. "They're somewhere on Earth but haven't poked their head out yet. Probably noticed that Hecate's head got snipped off as soon as she made herself obvious. For now, they can't access any shape-changing spells for the same reason you can't, so keep an eye out for them."

She switched the picture over to show an amateur video taken of the fight against Poseidon before he took to the sea.

"Poseidon was also one of our renegades," Ranma said. "He was killed in the Pacific Ocean."

Ranma let that set in and then turned back to the onlookers.

"You heard me right," Ranma said. "Poseidon and Hecate are dead. Not sealed or banished. Dead. D-E-D. Dead. We've come further than the renegades thought we could. Because of this, their plan has pretty much gone up in smoke around them."

She looked down into the front rows and gestured at Mara.

The woman stood up and walked up to the podium to take her position.

"Yes, I'm a Demon," Mara said. "Yes, that means the lot of you probably won't like me. I'm not going to make excuses, we've done things the way we felt they needed to be done, but that's not here or there. Most of my people, power or not, spend their days doing a nine to five job like most people. I'm military, basically an intelligence officer and right now, I'm in charge..."

She hesitated.

"...of what remains of the Nifelheim military," she noted. "We are...incapable of protecting our citizens in our current state. The numbers are...are not necessary."

She spoke quietly.

"But Hell...won't be overcrowded again for a long time whether we win or lose..." her head hung down and she took a deep breath. "...long time."

Then she rose her head and spoke clearly.

"We'll be putting our efforts behind Psyche and Mithril," she said. "I am yielding to the authority of human governments. We especially plan to support Captain Teletha Testarossa of Mithril and Director Ranma Satomi of Psyche. This is in the best interests of our civilians."

Urd and Morrigan stood up and walked forward in sheer shock while Mara continued to speak with a stone face despite the blow that admission had to have been to her pride.

Mara looked over toward Ranma and then towards the Socrates Group.

"That was mostly for the benefit of Psyche and Mithril personnel in the room," she said. "Socrates Group was an added bonus. Now, I think I'll get to the information Director Satomi wants me to focus on."

"Demons are dying," she said. "So are Gods, and there are things out there which have been sealed by us so they don't cause us trouble. Normally, if a human or someone else stumbled on one of the sites we have a seal, or if a natural disaster happened, the seal would be protected by its connection to the caster. Now, however, someone could just stumble on one of those things and out comes something nasty."

She gestured reluctantly and an image of a square inscribed in a circle appeared next to an image of an inscribed triangle.

"Our seals look like this," she said pointing to the four star circle. "And the God circles look like this. If the caster is dead, then they'll be leaking energy. A lot of these are things that couldn't die like Saffron, was already dead and wouldn't stop moving like certain Undead things some people have a bad habit of waking up, or was simply too strong for the particular Demon or God to kill. Or it was a God or Demon, whom we couldn't kill without consequence until recently."

"And I don't suppose you'll be able to tell us where these things are," O'Neil asked.

"The ones we know about are being checked and secured already," Mara said. "But there are seals out there only their caster knew about, so...yay, Cthulhu."

She twirled her finger in the air.

"I've made Director Satomi a list of known loyal Demons and known traitors," she said. "The reason you black-magicians are here is because you're on a list of people that we know don't owe favors to either criminals or traitors and haven't used these spells in a way that has had us decide to remove you from the population."

She looked toward the kitsune she'd been talking to earlier and nodded.

"Anyway," she said. "That's it for me...I believe..."

Mara stared for a moment.

"I'm not that old, five thousand years," she said. "Forty in this incarnation. I've seen the memories of when we were first born...all of us have...our people called us Keepers of Hope, because we were going to save our race from the meteor that was coming..." she said that emphatically. "...but all we could do was runaway and preserve the memory."

And then she turned away from the podium.

"And now the living memory is gone too," she said. "And all we can do is beg for help."

Mara moved to sit back down. Ranma watched Mara carefully as she sat down and then the red-head gestured for Belldandy to stand up.

The Goddess paused to pat Mara's shoulder comfortingly and moved up to the podium.

"Hello," she said. "I'm Belldandy, Goddess of Necessity, category 1, and I've chosen to add my support to Captain Testarossa and Director Satomi as well. This was a personal decision, but I'm told that most of the Gods on Earth are going to follow my lead."

She smiled and looked nervous.

"Someone gave me the advice to trust in the Gods," she said. "I hope the Creator is paying attention to our plight, but...the Gods...we have to trust in humanity. However, like Mara, I am here to give particular information."

Belldandy then gave a basic rundown of immortality, the network, reincarnation and the like to the assorted psychics.

"Category three beings are the normal, even for Gods and Demons," she noted. "Category two have either the skill or the power to heavily impact entire cities or regions with varying degrees of effort. Category one requires Yggdrasil and Nidhogg to be active to truly have more ability than category two and includes people with the combined power and skill necessary to impact things on a global scale."

"A living WMD," Jackson said.

"A living doomsday device," O'Neil noted.

"A counter Doomsday device, Colonel," Belldandy corrected. "Category one Demons and Gods combined have disarmed several potential naturally developing extinction level events since the development of the systems was made two million years ago. The people usually responsible for such things currently don't have the power to do anything about it if something happens."

"You shared how to get that much power with your enemies?" someone asked.

"We asked so nicely that they didn't notice us asking," Mara said snidely.

"I believe that's all from me," Belldandy said. "I still want to trust in the Creator and the like, I still believe that we are guided to our fortunes, even if it is up to us to make them."

She sat down and Morrigan moved forward without waiting to be called up.

"I have just a couple important pieces of information," she said. "Sorry to interrupt Miss Satomi...excuse me Director Satomi."

"Go ahead," Ranma said, arching an eyebrow.

"First...Kami-sama is dead," she said.

Belldandy gasped and missed finding her chair at the harsh reveal. Keiichi helped her stand up and move into the chair, holding her comfortingly as she started to cry.

Morrigan inwardly winced at the fact that she'd drawn it out and then hit the subject like a hammer.

"We managed to keep Yggdrasil out of the hands of the rebels," she said. "But we did not manage to inflict nearly as many casualties as the Demons did. They have active weapons and high numbers. Nor did we have as many Gods escape to Earth as Demons. At the moment, our leaders are holding off on bringing Yggdrasil up until they can at least temporarily block out the rebels."

She frowned.

"This means that the Demon rebels will be fewer in number with a lot more power per individual," Morrigan said. "Also, I have to say, Zeus will be a problem."

The "Phantom Queen" proceeded to explain Zeus's curse.

"Fortunately," she said. "We know were at least one of Zeus's children is, and he has quite a few more among pretty much every species that has women. I think I'll sit down now, because, unless I miss my guess, Satomi has a final bombshell."

Ranma frowned as Morrigan moved to sit down and stepped forward.

"And I thought I was undiplomatic," she said to a small roll of laughter. "And yeah, I have to talk about Ainur..."

* * *

"Now, that's the deal," Ranma said. "Most of the humans in this room are going to be offered the chance to 'ascend' if you want. Some of the people in here aren't human enough to go through the process. And you get all the vulnerabilities that come with it."

She paused and had the screen shift to another image, a set of women and girls of very similar builds and appearances. Black hair, pale skin and the woman in the middle held a rather disturbing smile underneath a look of insanity.

"This is the last thing for now," Ranma said. "After this, on to questions and volunteering."

Shampoo leaned forward in chair and frowned as she narrowed her eyes at the image.

"Rose-girl," she noted idly.

"Yeah, why does Kodachi rate as a point of discussion here," Ukyou asked.

"This is Kodachi Kuno," Ranma said. "Or at least this is the body she was born with. We have nine confirmed kills on this woman. Seven of them were confirmed by her."

"Make that twelve," Morrigan noted. "She came up in a study the Eyes ran after we found out you'd evolved a network."

"Sixteen," Mara said. "We had the same individual reports that would have told us what she was if we'd been looking for it."

"Twenty," O'Neil noted. "And we kinda knew she was a soul-sucking freak the second time."

"How is that possible?" someone asked as people looked about at the other speakers.

"What Colonel O'Neil said," Ranma said. "She has the ability to basically copy her mind into other bodies. Think Agent Smith."

"So what's the use of the picture then?" someone asked.

"So far, it sounds like she's stuck to eating...her own daughters," the redhead explained to the disturbed crowd. "So that she has bodies that look like her. She harvests her own reproductive cells, matures them to eggs, artificially inseminates them with DNA taken from the paranormal community and matures the fetus artificially."

Some other pictures appeared showing several of the recovered girls with their green marks. Ranma focused on the ones she knew for a moment.

"Nimu Ichi," she said. "That's twenty-nine out of the first batch for those that don't catch it. Yonjuu Ni, four-ten, which we hope means forty, of batch two. Sanya San, thirty-eight of batch three. Musan Yon, sixty-three of batch four, and Yaku Go. Eighty-nine of batch five."

She emphasized the numbers of Yaku's name firmly and let that sink in.

"We've rescued nearly fifty girls," Ranma said. "Do the multiplication."

Several people's faces started to look a little squeamish as they did start thinking about the hundreds not accounted for.

"The Ichi branch attempted a rebellion and managed to reportedly kill seven of Kodachi's bodies," Ranma noted. "Nimu Ichi and the boasts of the woman herself are our primary sources of information so far. She keeps the girls controlled with some sort of biological control, the details are in the report. And she has any proven psychics brought to her to...eat."

Ranma looked around again.

"As to the girls themselves," she said. "They're akiras, the Ichis had some training, but since their rebellion training has been disallowed. They're basically biological byproduct and cannon fodder to Kodachi. Anybody with children feel free to be pissed."

"The Ni batch are all sensors of one variety or another," Ranma continued. "The San batch are physical adepts. Yons are all projectors, Musan produces a vertigo blast for instance. The Go batch are mental prodgies so we expect a lot of psychics in those kids. And we've only seen one Ichi so we're not sure what pattern they follow."

The redhead finished with another image of Kodachi Kuno.

"Do not use anything remotely telepathic or involving projecting your mind out at this woman," Ranma said. "Unless you're a God, Demon or Ainur or have really damn strong mental defenses. We think she's only taking her own in order to keep the same looks, but there is no guarantee. This woman is a damn virus don't expose yourself."

* * *

Elsewhere, Kurz was whispering to McAllen as they moved through the hallway.

"So, Mao is on medical leave, Sagara is on light duty," Kurz said idly.

"Mao has at least one thing she's doing," McAllen said with a smirk to his subordinate.

"Oh, she gets to go to a party with psychics and eat free food," Weber noted. "Wah. We're here tracking down a telepathic predator."

"Do my ears deceive me," McAllen asked with a smirk, "Or is Sergeant Weber expressing a lack of interest in a beautiful woman."

"I draw the line at someone who thinks their kids' minds are gum drops," Kurz said.

McAllen nodded and signaled to the other SRTs behind him as they moved to the next room and a burst of fire said the room was cleared.

Chatting stopped as the business of room-clearing was seen to with all focus and the only word heard was "clear" repeated successively as they moved along at rapid pace.

"You will look at me," a voice ordered as they came outside the last room. "Do you understand child. You've hidden this long enough, you''ll give it to me now."

Kurz looked to McAllen who nodded grimly. They'd already recovered a handful of these girls Kodachi bred, mostly unconscious from tranquilizers or just immobilized, apparently there was one of the woman's bodies here as well.

That was all just fine because apparently they hadn't noticed the invasion yet. These facilities, once they were found seemed very easy to take down. Every member of the team were thinking the same thing, that it wasn't likely to be so forever.

Three flashbangs were drawn, their pins pulled and tossed into the room.

"What is..." the shrill woman's voice demanded. "Intruders."

The last word sounded positively bored just before the flashbangs went off and the Mithril SRTs moved into the room.

A burst of rapid gunfire took out the dazzled and deafened mercenaries in this last room, but the main target was still moving fluidly along out of the way of the bullets, a whip ribbon flashing out to slice through the guns of several soldiers.

Kurz set himself to aiming and gauging the target as she danced among the soldiers. Some of them had moved to pistols as their primary firearms were destroyed, while others tried knives. The woman they were fighting varied her motion gracefully, making her difficult to target even without being truly faster than the bullets the way Satomi was.

However, even as she dodged and pivoted amongst the soldiers, she wasn't able to push a completely usable opening, and she was too distracted to notice Kurz studying her and waiting.

At least until he finally pulled the trigger and placed a bullet through her chest followed by two more for good measure.

"All right, everyone," McAllen said. "We're wrapping this up."

"Are you okay, Miss?" Kurz asked moving to the side of the girl they had just rescued.

"Wh..what was she going to do to me?" the girl, a clear sister of Yonjuu, asked. "I...I didn't do anything wrong."

"Don't worry," Kurz said. "Kurz Weber is here to make everything right. What's your name?"

"Shichimu Ni of the Ni batch," she said nervously looking across toward where the body of her mother lay dying. "Ahh! But we'll die without her."

"We've got a solution to that actually," McAllen said.

The dying body forced its head up, ignoring the pain as inconsequential and looked across into the rescuee's eyes.

"Eventually, child," she said gurgling. "You are going to be somewhere you feel is safe and will take you forever from my reach and then you will look back to me. And you will know, you belong to me."

Kurz fired another round of bullets into the head then.

* * *

Several bodies across the planet sneered irritably.

"Well, well," she said, repeated several times over. "I'm guessing that means they've started looking for me. Interesting, that would imply that Ranma-darling is working for an organization."

She reached a hand over and took a scalpel from herself, cleaning it off as her other body started spreading open the incision she'd cut and the other moved to slice open the skull where she'd shaved it, wanting to get a good look at the brain while it was still alive and aware.

A third version of her stood over the captive God, enforcing a mental paralysis and actively probing through the man's mind looking for any sort of way to reach in and take over the body. It would be an excellent way to get a feel for this species's attitudes if she could feel the pain responses herself.

"Alas," she said. "I'm afraid that I shall have judge matters by observation rather than experience."

Across the room another of her sat at a series of instruments and studied the various already removed pieces of anatomy carefully as another beside studied the highly intriguing many layered and over-coded genetic structure.

Elsewhere, she was checking her records to see how many more of the vulnerable facilities she still had. Places that held those extra products of her true goals, breeding psychics that looked like her. In truth she didn't much care about those projects any longer. The earlier batches had mostly shown forth their usefulness already.

However, that didn't mean she especially wanted to give up on them. That was ridiculous. They were hers after all.

"I believe it is time to start experimenting with a little judicious modification," she noted calmly.

Behind her one of the other bodies glanced at where a spot of blood had gotten on her finger and all of the bodies across the world sneered in disgust.


	36. Normal School Days

Mara wondered briefly at the wisdom of her maintaining the teaching position at Jindai High, but the more she thought, the more it was probably a good idea to stay close to the various young VIPs in the school.

Given that she'd taken the reins, she couldn't often be running around doing things anyway. Information would have to come to her from the various Shadows and Faustians, and that left her free to command her troops and report to Ranma what was going on.

When the storm finally hit, she'd have to abandon the cover, of course, but it meant she was in good position to basically evacuate a large number of kids out of the battle area...as soon as they had a place to go.

Given the increase in importance, however, it meant having a little more on hand than just herself was a good idea. And Mithril, Psyche and the Gods had agreed.

Of course, Mara was now listed as those needing protection rather than the protection staff. Irritably enough. The details of the security staff was being handled apparently by some Mithril person and Mara was supposed to focus on her cover and her overall task of coordinating the efforts of her Demons.

"Geisthexe-san," Miss Eri Kagurazaka asked her as the other teacher approached. "I hope you had a good summer vacation, because it's time to get to work again. And you missed a lot of time the end of last period."

"Don't I know it," Mara said idly looking over her lesson plan for the week.

She'd given the general gist of what she wanted to teach, but Tutivillus had found some actual teachers to help put it together.

"Oh," Kagurazaka said. "You have those marks on your face, does that mean?"

"Yeah, those are some of my people out there," Mara said. "It got around I was here and now I'm working paperwork for some new students."

"Tch, we're already crowded as it is," Kagurazaka said. "I'm curious, are you people really psychic."

"Yeah, we all have a little something," Mara noted wondering why more people weren't assuming massive cosmic power. "It's not really that big a deal."

"You'll have to show me something sometime, maybe read my fortune," the teacher said nervously before collecting herself and turning a friendly smile again. "You know, I've noticed a few new faces in the staff. Like in the cafeteria, janitors and the like."

"Yeah," Mara said. "Heard rumors of new teachers too, maybe to deal with the new students we're going to have."

"What in the world," Kagurazaka said looking down out the window.

Mara stood up and looked out the window and groaned as a terribly embarrassed fourteen year old girl, a God, stepped out of the limo and had two men in dark suits walking to the gate with her. It was clear from the girl's expression that this hadn't been her idea.

"Is that the Imperial Family crest on the limo?" the other teacher asked.

"Some people just don't understand the idea of low visibility," Mara thought to herself.

"Yeah, that would be Amaterasu," Mara said aloud. "She's distantly related to the Japanese Imperial Family. I suppose they wanted to make sure she was good on her first day of school."

"Oh poor girl," Kagurazaka said tsking and shaking her head. "With that name and display she's bound to get a bit more attention than she wants. Parents should really stop and think before coming up with 'clever' names like that."

* * *

Ranma sneezed.

* * *

Wraith looked watched the limo arrive and groaned as she watched the Japanese Imperial Bodyguards paint all sorts of targets on the school and the back of the specific girl in particular.

When she'd first had this assignment, it was as a second bodyguard for Kaname Chidori, since Sousuke Sagara was occasionally on assignment. She'd thought Sousuke's "undercover" behavior was remarkably idiotic and wondered how the hell he'd slipped under Gauron's nose through all the initial surveillance the psycho had put on the school.

This, however, made Sousuke look like a genius. Wraith glanced up into the teacher's office and watched the expression of the Demoness there basically mirror her own. That woman she could at least respect given she'd been a teacher under Wraith's nose for two months before she'd shown that she was something else.

At least Wraith was comforted in knowing that Mara's target hadn't been the person she was primarily assigned to guard.

Now, Wraith didn't particularly trust the woman and wasn't certain how to expect she'd handle running all her people as well as maintaining a cover as a teacher. Then, she supposed Mara had a lot of people to do the out-of-classroom stuff for her.

* * *

"Miss Geisthexe," a girl's voice declared with loud confidence from the door behind her. "I'm calling in a favor. I want in your homeroom class."

"A favor?" Kagurazaka said, turning to look toward the speaker. "You should learn to speak more politely to your elders, Miss."

Mara rolled her eyes, favors couldn't be called in right now and favors repaid couldn't be recorded. Going along with this would be tauntamount to just giving out free labor, not something the current leader of Demons should be doing.

"Listen," Mara said, starting to turn around and look to see who had spoken. "I'll see what I..."

She took in the speaker and snorted, almost choking on the sudden burst of mirth, as she suddenly had an idea of just why the girl wanted in her class in particular.

"Oh...there is a Creator," she said reverently. "And they are both Just and Witty. HAHAHA...ha...ha.."

She started to think of some of her actions over the past few years.

"Oh no," carefully, she looked upward. "I think I'll be looking into getting religion later."

"Ummm? Is that a yes?" the girl asked.

* * *

Nimu Ichi stood in Ranma's training space now and looked across toward the woman that was currently walking around and taking things in. The woman had long purple hair and crossed her hands with a severe expression.

"Ranma is busy," she said. "She has a war to plan. So I will be training you occasionally. This has been told to you?"

"She told me someone would be training me when she couldn't," Nimu noted.

"Good," the woman noted. "As I understand it, one of Ranma's daughters is currently training with Ukyou Kuonji?"

"I heard that when she discussed training assignments," the Ichi noted, arching an eyebrow.

"Then you will make sure that you surpass said girl in ability," Shampoo noted.

"From what I heard, you're some sort of Champion or something," Nimu noted. "Why would someone like you volunteer for this."

"I am less busy than Ranma," Shampoo said. "And h...she is a friend."

Quietly, she had her own thought: "we'll see about Martial Arts Spinsters."

* * *

"Class we have a new teacher's aid and a new student today," the junior high teacher said smiling. "Please introduce yourselves."

"Hi, I'm Skuld Wodensdottir," the first girl said with a bright smile. "And I'm here as a student teacher because I recently graduated with a full engineering degree."

At least the Nekomi Tech courses had been something of a challenge in between studying for her currently on hold forever Goddess exams.

"Wow, you must be really smart." the teachre said, honestly impressed.

"You got that right," Skuld noted. "So if you need any help on math or science stuff, go ahead and ask me."

The teacher made a note to talk Skuld about the proper way to help before that actually happened and the girl started giving out answers willy nilly.

"That's very good," the teacher noted. "And now, why don't you introduce yourself."

The small girl stood up proudly in her uniform and turned around to write three digits on the wall over her head in a flourish.

38 - 3

"I am Sanya San!" she said with a confident thump, "The Pillar of Strength of..."

"Sanya-chan," Skuld said. "Calm down please."

She smiled over at the teacher a bit embarrassed.

"But...introduction speech," Sanya said. "I am a San. I live for this."

"At least write your name," Skuld said pointedly. "Not the number nickname thing you use."

"Huh...oh right!" Sanya turned back to chalk board and, with another flourish, wrote a series of kanji.

"I am Sanya San, cousin Deimosu Satomi who is staying with her cousin because they're family and cousins," Sanya said. "And my name means the Cutting Arrow."

She vigorously sliced her arm across in front of her.

"San for to cut down, ya for arrow!," she said emphatically with more cutting motions. "And I am the strongest there is! And you shall see that this so. OHH HOHOHOHOHOHO!"

Skuld sighed and looked heavenward.

"Confident...isn't she?" the teacher asked.

"What an ego," Skuld thought. "Who could ever stand for someone talking about how great they are all the time."

* * *

"All right," the teacher said. "First, we need to welcome back Deimosu Satomi. I'm sure he has some interesting stories to tell about where he's been for several months."

"Oh wow, he has such sexy tattoos," one of the girls in the classroom whispered to the other.

"Damn he's back," one of the boys noted to another.

"And this is our new student," the teacher noted. "Please step forward."

"Hello, I am Yonjuu Ni," she said. "My name means Four Tools, my mind, body, soul and..."

She hesitated and looked around at the various people staring at her.

_Why does it suddenly smell very, very thick in here?_ she asked Deimosu.

"Big, big...boobs," one of the boys whispered in the back of the room as he stared.

"Ah! She has the same tattoos that he does," a girl noted to her friend.

"Nooo, she can't be his...his..you know..." her friend said in a gasp.

_I've found that hostility and random gifts are par for the course in this class,_ Deimosu noted.

* * *

"Oh my God!" Kagurazaka-Sensei said in a gasp as she came into the classroom. "Satomi! Sagara! Tokiwa! what happened to all of you? You look like you were in a war."

"No," Sousuke said. "Merely a preliminary skirmish."

Kaname moaned and put her head down on the desk.

"Well, you see, someone ran into a wall," Kyoko said. "And I was in the way. Fortunately, I went over the wall instead getting pancaked."

"Oh dear," Kagurazaka-sensei said with a frown and crossed arms. "I do hope the police put him away for good. How could someone make such a mistake.

"The perpetrator was dealt with immediately," Sousuke assured her. "I regret that I was not a party to the direct retaliation that occurred."

"I'm right there with you for once Sagara-kun," the teacher said. "People who endanger lives like that should be punished. And I wish I could have been a part of it."

Eija raised her hand.

"Yes, Satomi-chan?" the teacher said.

"All my injuries were internal," she said. "How could you tell I was hurt?"

"You looked pale and your eyes are blood red..." the teacher paused. "Nevermind."

_Do I always look like someone beat me up?_

_No! You've totally got a sexy goth thing going on._

_But I'm not goth. I'm not._

_Uhhh..._

_I'm not willingly goth._

* * *

"All right, class," Mara said, masterfully suppressing a smirk as she walked into class. "We have a new student in homeroom today. Go ahead and introduce yourself."

Until Mara had started teaching classes, Naiki hadn't spent much time paying attention to the teacher. She still didn't spend all that much time paying attention to what Mara was saying, it usually didn't deal with anything useful when they were in classes. And right now was no real exception.

She glanced aside at the new girl for a moment and almost ignored her until she noticed the red marks on her face.

Must have been one of the kids that were getting sent over here.

There wasn't all that much to the girl from Naiki's perspective. She had long brown hair that fell about her in eight oddly animated braids that fell down to her knees and never seemed to be getting in her way. She was sixteen, maybe fifteen, with narrow shoulders and long arms and legs.

She was cute in a sort of pettanko way, which was certainly not Naiki's thing. Nor was dark brown hair.

"Hello everyone," the girl said sweetly. "I'm Lusca Kraken, I'm recently here from my previous home and visiting this wonderful country, which is close to the sea. I really like the ocean and the sea. Mostly I like octopus and squid, but I've getting a little interested in sharks recently."

Naiki blinked and then arched an eyebrow as the girl seemed to hone through the crowd of students and lock eyes directly onto her position.

"Eh?" Naiki noted, looking back over her shoulder to see who else the girl could be looking at.

Then she shrugged it off as just a Demon recognizing another Demon.

"All right," Mara said. "Go ahead and we can take your seat and we can get started."

Lusca walked her way through the chairs and sat down in the seat next to Naiki and continuing to look at her as the long braids pooled about her in artistic little bunches, coiling on the desk or folding on the back of her desk.

"Uh, hello," Naiki said.

"You cast a spell from me, so you're mine," the girl sang sweetly kicking her. "You better figure out how to answer me. I said 'watch out, I ain't lyin' yeah. I ain't gonna take no fooling around. I ain't gonna take you putting me down. You cast a spell from me, so you're mine, all right?"

Naiki stared at the girl, now leaning very, very close to Naiki and smiling cutely up at her.

"Can I sit away from the creepy pettanko?" Naiki asked hopefully. "Please?"

"Sorry, Naiki, but that's where Lusca is assigned," Mara said mouth twitching.

"Oh, Satomi-sempai," Lusca said sweetly. "I'm not creepy, I'm just so totally in awe of you, surely you can see that."

"Uhhh," Naiki said, edging her desk away from Lusca's.

Lusca edged hers over just the same.

"And so it begins," Mara thought as she faced the blackboard and hid her bulging cheeks as she threatened to break out into evil laughter.

* * *

"Well," Kurz asked.

"We're going to make slow going with all the security measures," McAllen said. "That leaves us with the girl for some time until we can get her to Meridia."

Kurz looked over at Shichimu where the girl was sitting and looking off into space.

"Twelve years old," he said.

Instantly, Kurz's face grimaced and he turned to look at his commanding officer.

"That is so not fair," he said shaking his head. "I wasn't thinking that at all!"

Suddenly the girl laughed for no apparent reason.

"What's so funny," Kurz asked.

"The movie," she said simply. "Oh, right...she glanced over again toward Kurz then. I see things far away when I want to. There was an add for a movie in the paper, so I decided to go see it. I mean, I'm kinda...scared with the guns and...everything."

"You know, you're supposed to pay for that," McAllen said.

The girl blinked and turned to look at him,

"I thought you were just paying for going into the theater," she said confused.

"Having it in the theater is the way they keep people from seeing without paying," Kurz said.

"Oh...I'll watch a different movie then," she said.

"That's not really the..." Kurz shook his head. "Hey, look, I'll go take you to a movie, all right. Just careful with that. That's probably how she was trying to get you."

"Get me, what do you mean?" the girl asked. "I know my sisters said not to let anyone know what my power is because I'd be taken away, but...what does she do?"

Kurz looked a little squeamish.

"If you touch her mind, or let her touch yours," he said. "She'll...basically eat your mind. So you've got to be careful with it. Don't use that power until we can protect you from her. Only a couple of weeks."

"Umm, all right," she said. "Where are my sisters? Why is it just us?"

"Because that woman will want you specifically," McAllen said. "So we're being a lot more careful with you. Want to make sure you get help."

"So, can we go to a movie then?" she asked. "Please, I don't want to just sit in here!"

McAllen grimaced and looked over toward Kurz.

"She's never seen one before," he said.

"What movie," he asked.

"There's this one about taming dragons in the...dollar theaters, I think?" she said. "Is that okay?"

"Why not," Kurz said shrugging with a smile.

Both mercenaries were more than a little cautious as they walked out with the girl towards the theater she'd pointed out in the newspaper.

"Ugg, people keep looking at me," she said. "Can I get a jacket, I forget how ugly I am sometimes."

"Trust me, kid," Kurz said. "There are plenty of women who pay lots of money to have your figure."

Shichimu stared at him a moment, mouth open.

"Why?" she asked.

"Yeah, we'll want to get you something anyway," McAllen said, glaring at a guy. "Probably a hat too."

"See, I'm ugly," the girl said. "No need to pretend."

"Look you're not...never mind," Kurz said. "We're here."

It was only a couple of minutes to get into the theater and as the first preview started to roll, Shichimu had one comment to make.

"Ah! There's sound!" she called out. "That's great! Do all movies have sound! What language is that?"

* * *

"I have that ID for you, Ma...Si...how should I refer to as?" Yomiko asked.

"Ma'am as a lady, excuse me woman," Ranma said. "Sir as a guy, let's try to get things as separate as possible. What's my name and stuff."

"Li Kurosawa, and your cell phone," she said handing the woman the identifications and papers she'd collected. "Private contractor in the region, I used the events you mentioned. Are you sure there'll be no problem with the real person claiming credit?"

"Dead, exorcised, sealed, buried under a rock in Kilimanjaro," Ranma noted.

"Uhh, all right," Yomiko said hesitantly.

"All right," she said. "Best give this a bit of a work out. You've got butterfly paper if we get something that needs immediate attention, or this cell, but let's keep contact between my male form and this office to a minimum of technologically trackable methods."

"Why are we doing it this way, Sir?" she asked. "Do you not trust Mithril or Psyche?"

"Not that," Ranma said. "It's always good to have a personal escape clause just in case something worms its way in. Having personal outs is a good way to get other people to safety too."

"So you already have some personal escapes?" she asked.

"I do," Ranma said with a smile as she gave no more information and walked out the door.

Ranma walked out of the office female and two blocks away, she shifted into male after ducking a corner.

He continued walking along just measuring his stride and attitude, making sure none of the last seventeen years gave him any tendencies that would stand out as more feminine than normal. Not that she especially femainine in the way most people thought of the word, but still.

It was about thirty minutes before he walked into a restaurant and moved to a table to sit down and start to look for a menu.

"Oh, excuse me," a woman said beside him, a certain playful humor in the voice. "Do you mind if I sit here? I can't seem to find any other seats."

Ranma leaned forward and laughed slightly before turning up to look at Mao.

"Mao, sit down and get off that leg," he said.

"I believe the line was 'fine with me, sit 'er down,'" Mao noted with half-lidded teasing eyes.

However, she did sit down and looked relieved as she did so.

"And then we start talking about how I lost a bet," she noted.

"We are not recreating our first meeting here," Ranma said smirking.

"Well that's fine..." she let the word draw out.

"Li Kurosawa," he said.

"Ah, right," the American said playfully. "So, your first socializing in this country..."

She gestured up his body indicating 'this country' to mean his male form.

"...and you decide to test it by taking me out on a date," she said with a smirk.

"That depends," Ranma said.

"On what?" Mao asked.

"What do you think of the other country?" Ranma asked.

Mao leaned over on her good arm and got in Ranma's face.

"The other country's just fine," she said. "I'm perfectly willing to visit the embassy and maybe visit and exchange drinks. But don't expect me to go spelunking."

"I wasn't going to," Ranma said chuckling. "Trust me there."

"So, can we get on to the fun part?" Mao asked.

The waiter walked over before Ranma could answer and took up his pad as he looked toward them and smiled.

"Can I get the gentleman and lady a drink?" he asked.

"Heinenken," Mao said quickly. "In a bottle if you can."

"All right," he said, blinking a little at the selection. "And for you sir?"

"Saki," he said with a smile. "Impolite not to drink if the lady is."

"Careful buddy," Mao said pointing at him. "I could end up ordering the lobster here."

"We don't actually have..." the waiter started to say.

"It's an expression," Mao said. "Probably loses something in translation."

"I...see," he said, slghtly confused.

* * *

The lunch bell rang and Naiki was up and going for the door before anybody else. She was around the next corner in a flash and then looked back down the hall to see the other students coming out of the door and no sign of Lusca.

Breathing a sigh of relief she leaned back against the wall and started to turn to walk a bit more calmly through the halls to avoid attracting attention.

And saw Lusca right there, staring up at her adoringly hands clasped together and sighing expressively.

"You're so graceful and aggressive!" she said in praise.

"How'd you get here so fast!" Naiki said.

"Duh," Lusca said, bursting into smoke and reforming again. "Demon"

"Oh, right," Naiki said. "Mara hasn't taught me that yet."

"I could teach you," the smaller Demoness said enthusiastically.

"Uhhh," Naiki said looking around. "Suuuure. Can you show me again?"

"Sure," Lusca said, she burst into smoke again, teleporting all of three feet.

"How about going somewhere further," Naiki suggested.

"How much further?" the pettanko with the long braids asked. "I can't go too far with Nifelheim down."

"How about to that tree and back," the shark-toothed girl said, pointing out the window.

Lusca blinked and looked out the window and then shrugged.

"I think I can almost get there," she said. "That'll be really hard though, I'll have to concentrate on this. I mean, we're not supposed to make it obvious and everything, you know."

"All right," Naiki said from behind her as she stepped quietly back toward the stairwell. "I'm ready to watch."

"Here goes," Lusca declared closing her fists cutely and closing her eyes in concentration.

As soon as she burst into smoke, Naiki was careening down the stairwell. Ten seconds later, Lusca reappeared in the hallway.

"Ah ha!" she said. "I did...it?"

She looked around blinking for Naiki, putting a finger to her mouth in thought.

"Ohhhhh," she said. "A trick. I knew she was strong, but smart too? Squueeeeee!"

A pair of boys paused and looked over to where the new student was practically hopping around in a circle and sighing as she looked into space.

"Did she just...squee?" the boy asked.

* * *

"Hey, Yonjuu," a boy said, approaching her. "Would you like me to show you around?"

He was a tall boy dressed in a baseball uniform and flashing a bright smiler. His eyes drifted toward her chest despite his efforts to remain cool.

"Uhhh, no," she said self consciously. "I can find my way around just fine."

"But, I can show you all the special parts," he said, leaning in close to her. "If you know what I mean."

"Uhh, not really," the girl said.

"Oh, I'm sure you..." he paused as he felt a chill work over his spine. "Is Satomi standing behind me?"

"He is," Deimosu said darkly. _Twelve._

"Well, I need to be heading to lunch," the baseball player said nervously as he inched away.

"What was that all about?" Yonjuu asked.

"Uh, nothing," Deimosu said as they started walking through the halls toward the lunch room.

"Ah, Yonjuu Ni, how lovely you are this afternoon," a new boy said whom Deimosu recognized as Shirai Satoru. "Perhaps you'd be willing to do me the honor of escorting you to lunch as your official gentlemen."

"But you're my boyfriend," another girl protested about ten feet further down the hall and marching her way up to the scene.

Deimosu looked past Shirai toward the girl and then at Shirai who suddenly looked rather nervous.

_Twelve._

And then he quietly sent a surge of electricity through Shirai's body, roughly the same as a tazer, nothing permanent. But it was enjoyable to watch the pervert twitch for what seemed to be no reason at all.

"Shirai-kun!" the boy's unfortunate girlfriend gasped as she came to his side.

"Wh...what was that?" Shirai wondered.

Deimosu and Yonjuu pushed on swiftly, Yonjuu now looking quite angry.

_Ohh, I'll bet it's these things here!_ she said, grasping her breasts for a moment and setting them jiggling. _They just want to get me alone and do terrible things to me. It's like that TV show said at the hotel, kids really are cruel to the unfortunate._

_They don't actually think you're ugly,_ Deimosu said with a sigh.

_So you're saying they don't want to do horrible things to me?_ the Ni asked.

_Umm, no, that part is right,_ the martial artist noted.

_So, what,_ Yonjuu asked. _Kids do cruel things to the beautiful?_

* * *

Kyoko sat in a wheelchair for the moment, her leg still needing to be immobilized for a while as it repaired itself. The other members of their group, however were gathered about the grass as usual. Only Mizuki and Naiki weren't there yet, which made sense given that both were in other classes and might still be getting their food.

"Look, I saw the video," Shinji said. "Naiki was fighting a giant calling himself Poseidon and you called her a demon. And then Sousuke comes back all bandaged up too and we've got all these weird people around. I mean, on the way over here, I passed a room with a fourteen year old girl named Amaterasu was talking to a boy who apparently comes from an old martial arts school or something."

"What's weird about that?" Kyoko asked. "We have a lot of old families in Tokyo."

"Yeah, don't make such a big deal about it," Kaname said, hiding her face.

"She was saying something about not remembering what she was doing during the Meiji restoration," Shinji protested.

"That is perfectly explainable," Sousuke noted. "After all, it has been made clear that she would not remember things that happened so far back."

"How could she," Kaname asked. "She wasn't even born yet."

"I thought this was Amaterasu we were..." Sousuke started to say.

"Who's a fourteen year old girl," Kaname noted. "Shinji just told us that."

"Right," Sousuke said.

"Come on, tell me," Shinji said. "Are these really the Gods and Demons come to Earth or something? They're aliens aren't they beamed down here from some ruined star ship."

"No...I'm from Earth," Eija said.

"Well, yeah, but you weren't one of them before," Shinji noted. "And now..."

"My grandmother is from Earth too," Eija noted. "They're all from Earth...ish."

"What she means is that they've just been in a remote part of Earth," Kaname noted.

Mizuki appeared from her own classroom and plopped down on the grass next to Kyoko. Almost immediately, as she used on hand to stuff food into her mouth, she took out a pen and started signing Kyoko's cast without asking or waiting for it to be offered.

"So," Mizuki said, the other kids around her. "What's going on?"

"They don't seem to want to say anything about the whole Gods thing," Shinji started to say.

"Pssh," Mizuki noted, waving her hand. "I don't care about that stuff. I'm wondering about something important."

"Wait, impending invasion isn't important?" Kaname asked.

"Ah ha!" Shinji said, pointing.

"Important!" Mizuki declared, putting a hand in Shinji's face and pointing toward Eija and Kaname, splitting her index finger and middle finger to do so. "You two...wait! Hey, Sousuke-kun, I think I saw a suspicious package by the wastebasket in the cafeteria."

"Really?" Sousuke said surprised and doubtful.

"Yeah," Mizuki said. "It kinda looked like a bento, but I mean it was brand new and right by the trashcan. Who buys a brand new bento and throws it away? And I was thinking about that stink bomb thing that went off right before the break and maybe it's another one of those things."

"And why are you telling Sousuke and not the school staff?" Kaname asked.

"Tssh," Nizuki said. "LAST time they blamed me for the stink bomb and I had to fill out a report and go to detention for a week! Let Sousuke deal with it."

"I am also responsible for garbage," Sousuke reminded them. "It would be best not to allow vandalism to occur under my watch."

"It might be best..." Eija noted.

_It could actually be real,_ the Goddess noted to Kaname. _It does sound strange._

"Yeah, I suppose it is," Kaname noted reluctantly.

"All right," Sousuke said. "I shall attend to this swiftly."

He stood up and started to walk away.

"So there's really a suspicious bento box at the wastebasket?" Kyoko asked.

"Oh yeah, just suddenly there," Mizuki said. "Anyway, now that it's just us girls."

"Wait, what?" Shinji asked.

"You two!" Mizuki declared pointing toward Eija and Satomi again with her two fingers before pointing at her eyes and back at them. "I've had my eyes on you."

"Umm, okay," Eija said.

"Sheesh, Mizuki, could you get anymore creepy?" Kaname asked. "What about us?"

"You two are doing the vulcan mind meld thing back and forth," she said, "staring at Sousuke's back and then going back to whatever."

"Oh, yeah," Kyoko said. "I noticed that."

"I'm not really sure what you could mean by that," Eija said, fluttering her eyes toward Kaname.

_How could she possibly tell when we're talking? _

_I don't know? She's just freaky like that._

This was complete with a shrug.

"Look I'm not one of the..."

"So when are you two telling Sagara that you want to share?" Mizuki asked.

"Never mind," Shinji said, "I can listen to this."

Eija and Kaname stared out at Kyoko, Shinji and Mizuki with slack jaws and paling faces before turning toward each other.

"Quick, what do we say for denial?" Kaname asked.

"We just point ou..." Eija paused, and looked over toward their friends, who were staring with rapt attention. _Kaname, I think that was out loud._

_Oh crap!_ Kaname said. _Uhhh...ridiculous right._

"We don't talk to each other's minds, that's ridiculous," Kaname said laughing. _Oh God, I denied the wrong thing!_

_Don't panic! It's not over yet, there is still an ultimate Satomi secret technique for this, follow my lead,_ Eija said quickly, before turning to look to the side and pointing. "Oh, is that Deimosu and his underaged girlfriend over there?"

Almost instantly, Mizuki, Kyoko and Shinji looked toward where Deimosu was sitting with Yonjuu.

"She doesn't look underaged," Kyoko said.

And Eija grabbed Kaname before entering the Umesenken, guiding Kaname through the steps, and vanishing them both away.

The other turned back and saw no sign of the two girls.

"Awww, they ninja-ed us," Kyoko said.

* * *

Sousuke was walking through the hallways on the way to cafeteria at a fast clip, eager to reach the potential stink bomb (or just plain bomb) before it was either accidentally moved or set off. He was just reaching the door when a Demoness with her hair in eight, long dark braids pushed her way out looking frustrated before catching sight of him.

"Oh, hey! You're one of these new people," she said waving and stepping forward.

"I am," Sousuke said cautiously. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a potential..."

"Do you know where Naiki Satomi is?" she asked, ignoring his comment. "I was trying to show her something and she had to leave or something."

"One can usually find Naiki Satomi in close vicinity to things exploding," Sousuke said.

"I know!" the girl returned breathlessly, clapping her hands together. "So strong."

"Yes, well, failing that," the Mithril mercenary noted. "She usually lunches with my group so that she can put herself in Kyoko Tokiwa's pictures."

"Kyoko Tokiwa..." Lusca said. "Are they an item?"

"I believe they're both separate entities," Sousuke said, wondering at the strange question and trying to get around the little girl. "Now if you'll excuse me."

"Oh, of course," she said. "So I follow your trail back to your group then."

"That should work," Sousuke noted.

Lusca nodded and then sniffed at the air before heading down the hall the way Sousuke had come.

Which left Sousuke free to finally head into the cafeteria and start scanning about the room, looking for the suspicious bento.

"Hey! There it is, just like I heard," a voice declared. "A fresh new Magical Lyrical Nanoha Bento box big enough for two people!"

"Cool deal!" another voice said.

Sousuke geared in on the noise quickly and looked across to see two boys from the modeling club looking toward a wastebasket and then noticing him.

In a moment, both Sousuke and the two boys were charging for the trashcan to the amazement of the watching staff. Each of them were about to reach the item in question when a figure suddenly appeared in their way, bringing both up to a stop.

"Stop!" Kagurazaka-sensei said loudly. "Hold it right there. We're not going to have any of this fighting over lost items."

"It is not lost, Kagurazaka-sensei," one of the modeling club boys declared. "It's been thrown away, that makes it fair game by the rules."

"You can't be..." the teacher started to say. "This is another of that Hayashimizu's student council rulings, isn't it?"

"That it is," the modeling student declared.

"I'm afraid I have to protest," Sousuke said. "There is a possibility of someone having tampered with this container. It has been suggested that a similar container contained a mild chemical attack that was used to assault the school prior to the start of break."

"Uh huh," Kagurazaka-sensei said, eyes half-lidded. "Right, it's going to gas us."

"It is a possibilty," Sousuke said.

"I can't believe I'm asking this," the teacher noted. "But is there an insane ruling for when two people are claiming an item from the trashcan?"

"Yes," Sousuke said immediately. "The contested item must be placed as the prize in a competition of some sort."

"Ah ha!" the modeling club member said. "Then I challenge you, Sagara. To a game of Battletech!"

"I'm not trying to claim the bento box," Sousuke noted. "If you'll just let me examine it for signs of tampering..."

"No," Hayashimizu said, appearing out of the blue. "The challenge has been made and must be met."

Sousuke just knew this was going to get Kaname upset at him somehow, and probably draw Eija in as well.

"Yes, your excellency," he said, sighing.

The teacher sighed and put her hand to her forehead.

"Yeah, you take care of that," she said. "I'm going to put this into the teacher's office until then."

Sousuke flinched as the teacher picked up the item in question.

"You really think it's a gas bomb, don't you," the teacher said with a sigh. "I swear, if this releases something that eats the school's clothes again..."

And with that she walked off toward the teacher's office.

"You'd better find yourself some lancemates, Sagara!" the modeling club said. "No one has ever bested the Modeling club at battletech yet."

"Dude, we only play against each other," his friend said.

"Ssssh!"

* * *

"Yonjuu-chan!" a tall, punkish boy wearing his uniform half open said as he slouched toward her and leaned against the wall in her path with a cool smirk. "Hey, Satomi, you don't mind if I talk to the girl here do you?"

"I think you should be treating her with respect," Deimosu said stepping forward and leaning into his full six-foot height.

"Listen, Satomi," the shorter punk said. "I heard you're some sort of martial artist and stuff, but I learned to fight on the streets and I've been in hundreds of scraps, so just you go off and I'll see about showing your girl a thing or two about being a woman."

_Twelve._

The thought was full of extreme vehemence.

"Uh, I think you should run right now," Yonjuu said, looking toward Deimosu.

"See, your girl knows what's what," the punk said.

"Actually, I'm talking to you," Yonjuu said.

"Don't worry baby, I can handle a little girly kung fu geek like him," the boy said.

* * *

Issei blinked as something slammed into the wall behind him.

Turning around he saw one of the local punks shakily standing up and trying to clear his head.

"Dirty cheating bastard," he said. "I'll show him that that fancy martial arts stuff isn't worth crap."

"Excuse me?" Issei demanded angrily.

"Get out of my way you pansy freak, Inaba might think you're hot stuff, but I know better," the punk started to say as he tried to push through. "I gotta go talk to my boys."

And he put a hand on Issei's shoulder.

* * *

Kyoko lifted her camera up as she saw something click worthy, in this case a young man doing a flailing screaming dive into the school pool from the second window. Upon bringing the camera down, she saw Naiki standing there with a victory sign.

"Naiki," she said cheerfully. "Wow, glad you got here before lunch was over."

"Yeah, I had to pull some fancy moves to get here clear," Naiki said sitting down and pulling out the bread she'd gotten. "There's this..."

"So who's the new girl?" Mizuki asked.

"...new...student," Naiki finished slowly before turning toward her side and looking to see Lusca sitting there staring up at her again. "How...how did you?"

"This nice boy told me that you eat over here most of the time," Lusca said. "That was a very clever trick you pulled on me! I like you."

"Uhh, trick," Naiki said, eyes shifting in different directions. "What was that."

"Well, you know, how you asked me to see if I could show you how to teleport and I did this," the girl vanished.

"The hell was that?" Shinji demanded.

Naiki took off running.

"Sorry, Kyoko!" she called back.

"Wow, it runs in the family," Mizuki said.

Lusca reappeared.

"And when I got back you were..." she blinked and looked around. "She did it again! Squeeee! Now, where to look...oh, right I can just wait for class! So smart! So cute!"

She said this bouncing up and down with her braids bouncing with her, given that was about all she had that could bounce, and then Lusca turned toward Shinji, Kyoko and Mizuki.

"Which of you is Kyoko?" she asked.

"Oh, that would be me," the named girl said. "It's so good to see Naiki found someone attracted to her."

"You mean you're not?" Lusca asked.

"Can we go back to the vanishing in a puff of smoke thing?" Shinji asked.

"Well, she's a girl," Kyoko noted as if it were obvious.

"Aren't you worried about her running from you?" Mizuki asked.

"Oh no," Lusca said. "Geisthexe-san explained it all to me! Naiki wants someone that can match up to her in her prowess. It is all a test. And I shall pass that test!"

She giggled, then squeed again and skipped off toward the school.

"That was very mean of Geisthexe-san to do that to that poor girl," Mizuki said.

"Aww, I was hoping Naiki'd found a girlfriend," Kyoko said.

"Can someone explain the smoke and teleporting thing?" Shinji asked.

* * *

Naiki came to a stop outside the gym and ducked around a corner, trying to think of something to do before the next class.

_Naiki! You're so worked up I can hear you through the blocks, what's going on?_ Tessa's voice demanded.

_I've got a stalker!_ Naiki declared.

_All right,_ Tessa noted seriously. _Give me the information and I'll see what I can do._

_She's about five foot three inches, with knee length hair in eight braids,_ Naiki referred.

_Okay,_ Tessa said. _And where have you seen her?_

_She's been sitting in the desk next to mine,_ Naiki said.

The Demoness could almost see and feel Tessa put down a pen.

_What exactly is going on here?_ she asked.

_She's singing at me and staring and being a creepy,_ Naiki said.

_She isn't either a buff or busty blonde either, is she,_ Tessa asked.

_No! She's a pettanko brunette!_ Naiki returned. _Are you laughing Tessa?_

* * *

"Okay," Kaname said with a sigh as she and Eija reappeared into visibility back in the classroom. _That was a close one._

_We'll have to be very careful from here on out,_ Eija said.

_You don't think they've forgotten do you?_ Kaname asked.

_Not really,_ Eija said. _So we need to decide what to do._

_By the way,_ Kaname said. _Aren't those girls supposed to be here as your cousins?_

_Well, yes,_ Eija said. _Why?_

_Because you called her Deimosu's underaged girlfriend,_ Kaname noted.

_Oh. How wonderful._

The embarrassment was clearly noticeable in both her thoughts and face.

"Attention, all students," Hayashimizu's voice called out. "Will all please report to the auditorium after the lunch bell to witness a competition of glory, honor and spoils."

"The hell?" Kaname asked.

"Will Kaname Chidori, Eija Satomi and Shinji Kazama please report to the student council room?" the student president said a few seconds later.

"Sousuke," both girls said at once.

* * *

"I swear this school is crazy," Kagurazaka-sensei said, putting down the unclaimed bento with a firm hand as she came into the office.

Mara looked up from the notes she was taking on her break period.

"Now that Hayashimizu is shutting down classes for some sort of pretend battle," she said.

"What is that about?" Mara asked.

"Both Sagara and some other boy are trying to get this bento box and they're settling it with a battle of some sort of miniature game," Kagurazaka-sensei said. "And of course to put our foot down would 'interfere with the autonomy of the students.'"

She put her palm to her forehead and looked skyward as if for guidance.

"I swear," she muttered. "Keep an eye on the office please. We just got all the summer projects and papers in, don't want someone sneaking in and stealing something."

"Not a problem," Mara said. "I can handle that just fine."

Kagurazaka-sensei left still shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

Mara sniffed at the air momentarily and then sighed in a pleased manner.

"Ahhh, sulfur," she said. "Reminds me of home."

* * *

"Okay," the punk said to his assembled hoodlums. "Both Tsubaki and Satomi have to come by here on the way to the auditorium for whatever this thing is. And I'll bet Satomi is right around that new girl."

"Hey, if she's hanging around Satomi, maybe she's just as dangerous as his sister," someone suggested.

"Shut your trap," the leader said. "That was a fluke. None of these martial artist geeks know how to really fight worth a damn. Certainly no girl can."

"I was pissing blood after that!" someone protested.

The crowd of punks looked back at him.

"I got better," he said quietly.

"Doesn't Satomi have two sisters?" someone else asked.

There was a wash of quiet.

"Eija took off her sunglasses once and I made eye contact and I couldn't sleep for a week," he said.

"Really?" someone asked.

"She smiled and said 'hi'," he whispered. "It was creepy cute!"

"Why don't we just kidnap Kaname and challenge Sousuke?" someone asked. "He'd use guns and we'd die faster."

"Ooo!" the leader said. "Kidnapping is a good idea, let's kidnap someone for a hostage to get them to fight us."

"I thought we were ambushing them," someone noted.

"But who do we kidnap?" the leader wondered.

A cheerfully humming girl with long brown braids started to skip through the scene between the small horde of punks.

"Hey, flat-chest," the leader called out. "We're going to kidnap you to force Tsubaki and Satomi to fight us."

The girl paused and thought about it for a moment.

"Well, I don't think that works with my plan," she said. "But I'm willing to give it a try. If you think it will get Satomi here."

"Uhhh, okay," the punk leader said.

* * *

"How'd we get into this?" Kaname asked her apparent teammates.

"Apparently," Sousuke said. "Someone else wants to claim the bento in question and challenged me for it. President Hayashimizu insisted I take the challenge and when he asked if I had anyone to serve on my team..."

"Obviously it is just us," Kaname sighed.

"Well, we do need to practice if we're going to take on that Megumi girl," Eija noted.

"Oh yeah," Kaname agreed, narrowing her eyes.

_I saw my mother talking to her and her brother and that other woman a couple of days ago,_ Eija told Kaname conspiratorially.

_Oh yeah, she's got to go down if she's still sniffing around,_ Kaname said. _So let's paste these geeks than move on to her then._

_Right,_ Eija said clenching her fist and pumping it confidently.

"We're ready," Kaname said smiling and cracking her knuckles.

"They're doing the mind meld thing aren't they?" Shinji asked.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," Sousuke noted idly, despite having felt the background static of feeling Kaname's end of the conversation.

* * *

"Damn it, Tessa, why can't you help me now in my hour of need," Naiki said.

She paced and considered her situation.

"There's no way I'm going to that thing in the auditorium, cause that girl is going to just be there waiting, I know it," she noted.

Stopping she nodded firmly.

"All right," she decided. "I'll go hang out in one of the empty classrooms. No way she'll find me there."

* * *

Deimosu and Yonjuu were stopped in the hall as a trio of punks came into their path.

"Hey, Satomi," the central punk said. "Our boss wants to let you know that we've got your girl kidnapped and we're going to be doing horrible things to her if you don't come and show up for a beating like you've never received in your life."

Deimosu looked over toward Yonjuu and arched an eyebrow.

_Why are you looking at me?_ She blushed fiercely.

"Not this one, another one," the punk said.

"'Another one?'" Deimosu said confused.

_Now, I know you don't have a girlfriend, so what is he talking about?_ Yonjuu said.

_I have no idea, but better check it out,_ he said shrugging. "Okay whatever."

"Okay then, the ambush is two halls over now," he said.

"The ambush is..." Deimosu stared at the punks. "Really?"

"We had to relocate it to make it a hostage thing instead," he said. "Now I have to go contact Tsubaki."

"You go do that," Yonjuu said watching him go. _Are we going to kill them?_

_Just rough them up a little,_ he returned with a shrug. _Wait. What do you mean you know I don't have a girlfriend?_

* * *

_What the hell is this crap?_ Kaname declared as the referee put out another marker on her map to note that she'd discovered something. _Look out, there's a firefly about to get sight on your Apollo. Turn one faces left and the ref should show it to you._

_Oh, I know where he is then,_ Eija returned out loud she continued. "I'm really sorry I'm already down to one mech."

"Sousuke," Kaname said. "We've got a scout about to find something. I don't got sight on you to know if you can see."

"Are the girls taking this a little personally?" Shinji asked.

"Affirmative," he responded. "He just came into my sight, be aware, the enemy's fourth lance was sighted heading your way."

"Yeah," Shinji said. "There's an Daishi and two Madcats, they passed my position just last turn. I'm trying to get in behind them, but I all I can do is support."

"What do we have left?" Sousuke asked with eyes narrowed.

"I've got a Firefly and a damaged but operating Wolverine," Shinji said.

"One armed Timber Wolf," Kaname said. "Two Wasps."

"My Apollo," Eija said forlornly.

"And I have a Jackrabbit and a Timber Wolf," Sousuke said.

Mizuki wandered over casually.

"By the way, where's the bento?" she asked.

"I believe Kagurazaka-sensei took it to the teacher's office," Sousuke said.

"Wasn't there a weight limit for this match?" Kaname asked. "I've had exchanges with at least two other heavies. They swarmed Eija with mediums, and we've taken out four recon mechs between us."

"Yeah," Shinji said irritably. "And they're using Clan tech to our Inner Sphere."

"They're cheating...in a challenge?" Eija asked in a shrill, highly offended voice. "Why hasn't the ref caught this?"

She moved over to look at the write up of the challenge.

"This has two different rules sets for team crafting on it," the martial artist said.

"What?" Kaname shrieked moving toward Eija's side. "Experience handicap? What the hell?"

"Okay, now this is personal for me too," Shinji said.

"All right," Sousuke said. "I have a plan."

* * *

"All right, get in there," the punk told Lusca as he pushed her into an empty room and shut the door on her.

"How rude," Lusca said dusting her off. "This plan had better work, or he will be facing a...situation."

"Would whoever that is be quiet," a girl's voice called out. "I'm trying to sleep in here."

"Squeeeee!"

Lusca jumped to the top of the teacher's desk and crouched over to look down at the floor where Naiki was staring wide-eyed at the wall from her lying down position.

* * *

Deimosu, Yonjuu and Issei stopped as they came to the same hall and looked at each other.

"Did you get challenged for this nonsense too?" Deimosu asked.

"Yes," Issei said. "This fool has already offended me once today and now I hear he has kidnapped your..." he looked over at Yonjuu. "Are you some sort of two timing pervert, Satomi?"

"He doesn't have a girlfriend," Yonjuu noted with a curiously happy tone.

_I still want to know how you can tell that,_ Deimosu noted mentally. _And why do you sound happy about it._

_I'm not really sure,_ the Ni noted.

"So who have they kidnapped then?" Issei asked.

"I don't know," the blonde half-Greek said. "I figure save them first, identify them later."

"Sounds good," Issei said with a nod.

"I suppose I should watch since I'm supposed to be learning basic stuff first," Yonjuu said.

"This'll be about as basic as it gets," Deimosu said.

The three of them turned the corner to see a small army of punks.

"Ha! So you're not cowards then," the leader declared. "Well get ready for..."

He was interrupted as the body of the first struck punk flew past him and the next slammed straight into him.

"My kidney!"

* * *

"The hell?" one of the modeling club members said. "I just lost my long-range support. When did they get to this side of the map? Where's scouting?"

"All the scouts are down!" another said. "None of us have any good eyes anymore. Just cover ground with your assaults as best you can."

"Nooo! My Daishi is down!" someone called out. "Some friggin 25 ton Jackrabbit just took out my head in one shot!"

"Missiles just fired from the hill top to the north!" another declared. "Damn it their incendiaries! Critical overheating on two of my mechs."

"How bad," the leader asked. "Three ammo explosions, lost a leg."

"What were you doing keeping ammo on your leg?" another demanded.

* * *

Mara looked up at a hissing sound and turned to look back at the bento that the other teacher had brought in. She blinked for a couple seconds watching it.

"What the hell?" she asked.

And then it exploded outward in a wash of thick sulfurous smoke almost immediately followed by a downpour of water from the sprinklers all over everything in the room.

Frantically, Mara moved to turn off her computer as she shaped a shield out of the smoke around the one vulnerable machine. The water soaked everything else in the room, destroying pretty much every pile of papers, homework and the various other summer projects.

As soon as her computer was secured, she waved herself and coughed a little.

"Okay, that was a little thick to be a reminder of home," she noted hacking again. "How do I turn off the sprinklers."

* * *

"Why do you keep following me?" Naiki asked.

"Why?" Lusca asked. "Squeee. So strong. So smart. So kyuuute!"

"Okay, so granted I'm strong and smart and sexy," Naiki said.

"Cute, actually," the other Demoness said.

There was a muffled scream from outside the room and a thump into the wall that attracted their eyes for half a minute before they turned back to look at each other.

At which point a bright burst of lightning cascaded through the hall outside.

"Why not sexy?" Naiki asked.

"Cute is better," the other Demoness asserted.

"How do you know about me anyway?" Naiki said.

"Well, when they unsealed me," she said. "They told me someone had cast one of my spells recently to fight some sort of human Juggernaut or something."

"Uhhh, Tendrils of the Kraken?" Naiki asked.

"That's the one," she said happily. "I swear no one has cast it in forever. I was starting to feel unappreciated!"

"Did you say unsealed?" Naiki asked suddenly.

"Well, when you killed Poseidon," Lusca said, twirling one of her braids.

"Helped kill," Naiki corrected her.

"Pfft, everyone else was a land-locked nobody I hear," she said.

"Actually..."

_Naiki, I swear, if you sick your unwanted lesbian crush on me,_ Tessa warned. _I will be having words with your mother and teacher._

The green-haired Demoness sighed reluctantly.

"So Poseidon had sealed you," Naiki guessed.

"Yep! Back in the 80s! I wasn't even done growing up yet, the coward!" Lusca declared with more than a trace of anger. "And when he died they were able to unseal me! So here I am. Do you know what it's like to be sealed for that long when you don't have all your memories and power yet?"

"Uhh, no," Naiki said.

"Of course not!" Lusca noted. "Because you're too strong, smart and cute to be captured like that."

"Well, thank you for the compliment but if you could leave me alone?" Naiki asked.

"Oh, but you owe me a favor," Lusca reminded her. "A category 1 favor. So I'm going to admire you from close up."

"Is that your favor?" Naiki asked.

"Oh no!" the girl said. "If I use my favor then I don't have it. No no, I'm not calling in my favor."

"Well, since you have nothing to give me," the shark Demoness noted. "I think I'll..."

"But if I have to, I can ask for a favor," she said. "Like...singing I'm a little teapot to the school. Oooor, oooo! Take me for a helicopter ride..."

Naiki turned dreadfully pale. Especially at the word "helicopter".

"So either you spend your time following me around and gushing at me," the martial artist said. "Or I get some sort of humiliating demand?"

"Right!" Lusca said.

"Why don't you just use your favor to make me date you for real?" Naiki asked.

"Miss Geisthexe said your mother would hurt me if I did that," Lusca said.

"But blackmail is okay?" Naiki asked.

"I think so," Lusca said. "But I didn't ask."

"All right," Issei declared pushing open the door to the classroom and slipping in. "You're free to go ladi...wait, Satomi? They kidnapped you?"

"Naiki, what are you doing here?" Deimosu asked.

"Oh no," the little braided girl said. "That was me."

Deimosu and Issei exchanged looks and left the room wordlessly.

"What does that mean?" Naiki demanded as she stood up walked out the door herself, only to find Issei and her brother already gone.

The sprinklers went off and the punks started to slowly wake up and notice Naiki standing in the middle of the hall.

"All right," the punk leader said weakly as he stood up. "No more Mr. Nice Guy. Satomi, I know you're there somewhere. Enough of this cheating crap. I'm going to take you down once and for all. You should have just let us in so you don't get hurt."

"Did someone just call me a cheater?" Naiki asked coldly.

Lusca watched from the doorway and stared forward rapt as Naiki tore through the punks after their highly inappropriate comment in regards to her honor in a competition.

* * *

"And the winner is Team Sagara!" Hiyashiizu declared. "Congratulations, you have successfully defended your right to the..."

And the sprinklers cascaded down on the entire auditorium, sparking sudden cries of "fire" and panicked students rushing out of the room for safer areas.

* * *

"Dude, we have to give up on this," one of the punks said. "All you've managed to do was get us beat up twice."

"No, no," the leader declared. "We can do this, we can show those pansies what a real fighter is!"

Lusca walked out of the room and looked around for Naiki.

"So strong!" she sighed.

"Hey, you," the leader said. "Get back in that room!"

"But I already saw Satomi," she said.

"Then we can find something else for you to show us," the leader said with a leer as he and his fellows took in the lovely pettanko.

"Ohh, you're funny," Lusca said chuckling.

Another figure walked into the hallway and looked around hesitantly. Lusca looked over at her and blinked to recognize a fourteen year old Amaterasu. She started to move when she remembered that they were allied at the moment.

"Uhh, excuse me," the girl said. "I was looking for my classroom, I left...some...errr...hello."

"Oh look, it's new rich girl," one of the punks said. "Now we've got two girls to play with."

"Yeah," Lusca said. "Even if we weren't apparently on the same side right now. Amaterasu isn't old enough to have most of her power yet, so that's not quite such a funny joke here."

"Well, we think it's funny," the punks said chuckling.

Lusca walked over toward Amaterasu and pulled the younger girl behind her.

"Last chance to back off," the girl said, dead seriously.

"Ehh?"

"Us, back off?" the leader said. "Have we shown any sign of that sort of thinking?"

"Oh well," she said. "I'll try not to seriously hurt you."

"You won't seriously hurt us?" a punk said doubtfully.

"Oh man, she's another martial artist," yet another punk noted.

"Oh, no," Lusca said. "I don't do much in the way of martial arts."

"Then how are you going to fight us?"

* * *

Kagurazaka-sensei came out of the teacher's office coughing at the stench and blinked as saw a thug screaming down a hallway and then suddenly be pursued by what looked like a long tentacle and pulled back into the hallway he'd run out of, kicking and screaming.

She blinked again and rubbed at her eyes before proceeding to the Principal's office.

* * *

"Attention students, please vacate the school grounds," the Principal's voice declared. "Apparently someone detonated a hallucinogenic gas in the main building. In addition the sprinklers have apparently destroyed most, if not all of the summer projects. As such you will have another two weeks to complete those assignments."

"Yes!" Mizuki cheered. "It worked!"

Kaname, Eija, Sousuke, and Shinji stopped walking and turned to look at Mizuki. Kyoko, in her temporary wheel chair, and Naiki, who was pushing her, each did likewise. Deimosu and Yonjuu behind Mizuki stopped as well and stared at her as she danced around in celebration.

"Two more weeks to do summer projects and half a day off from school," Mizuki declared proudly.

"When...when did you plan this?" Kaname asked.

"I've been planning this for three months!" Mizuki declared proudly. "I'm not sure how some this stuff happened, but half day off! Woot!"

The people around her groaned in various ways.

"Mizuki," Kyoko said with a sigh.

"You were planning this before you ever got assigned the homework?" Kaname shouted.

"Yeah," Mizuki said as if that was obvious.

"Why didn't you just do the homework?" Sousuke asked.

"I was busy putting the whole smoke bomb thing together!" Mizuki said.

* * *

"That's it, I'm through with being a punk!" several boys called out in one set of words or another. "I'm going to be a damn nerd for the rest of the year."

"But they're just wimps and hallucinations," the leader protested.


	37. Deciding on a Haircut

"That was fun," Shichimu said cheerfully coming out of the theater with the two mercenaries. "I had no idea that movies had sound like that."

It was a sight that was attracting some attention: a girl who looked about seventeen and Japanese walking down the street of a small European city while two men clearly not related to her and quite a bit older walked with her.

"I guess that means you'll be paying to see the movie more often now," McAllen said in a humorous aside before putting his eyes back on the street.

"Oh yes, I'll be paying to hear a movie a lot more often now," she said. "Well...if I get money."

"I don't think that'll be a problem for a bit," Kurz said.

"I did like the dragon better as green though," she said.

"It was dark blue," McAllen said.

"Yeah, but I changed it," she said.

"Hold it, you changed the color of what you were seeing," Kurz said.

"Uh huh," Shichimu said nodding. "I guess that's another part of what I do. It's why I keep forgetting I'm ugly, because I make myself look like an Ichi when I look in the mirror. Or draw a line on the ground so I know how to get back from somewhere."

"And if you walk away from where you drew the line, does it go away?" McAllen asked.

"Why would I let it do that?" she asked. "Then I'd get lost in the lab or when she sent me on missions with the others."

Kurz and McAllen exchanged a look.

"Her power is a customizable User Interface," McAllen asked.

"No, I just change what I'm looking at is all," she said. "I mean it's exactly the same as looking out things that aren't in front of me. Just have to be careful or you can get..."

"Hold up," Kurz said. "Duck aside here."

McAllen nodded and pulled the girl into the alley next to them, going on guard as Kurz moved against the edge of the wall and quietly pulled out a gunsight from his pocket and brought it up to his eye, making sure no one got a good look at him doing so.

"We've got company at the hotel," he said. "Judging by body language and the way the men are jumping, I'd say that's a Kodachi down there."

"The woman has some information, if we had stayed in the hotel we might have been caught by now," McAllen said. "Maybe she already has a psychic way of finding us like this girl's vision."

"Maybe," Kurz said. "But if she already had Shichimu's ability, I'm not sure she'd be here herself."

"Let's get out of here," McAllen said. "Let's head for the secondary."

"I could..." Shichimu started to say.

"No," McAllen said. "If she knows what you can do, she'd just sit herself somewhere she might think you'd look at and grabbed you when you looked."

He gestured for the girl to follow him and she did so as quietly as she could. Like many of the numbers, she had been on missions in the past even if she lacked training.

"It's too dark," she complained, pausing for a moment. "Fixed it."

Kurz stared at her and shook his head as he came up behind them, ready to go for his gun.

"I'd love to be able to adjust the gamma on real life," he said. "Still, tone that down, don't know how much she needs to get you."

"But, it's dark," Shichimu protested.

"Not that dark," Kurz assured her.

"Less talking," McAllen said.

* * *

The secondary site had a few lookout points associated with it. Things Kurz had reasoned would have a good line of site on the location and would give him something to go to put a watch on the site, a tool shop in a row of shops, and see if it was safe from a distance.

This was stuff Kurz himself had picked out from studying the maps and checking out surveillance pictures. It wasn't on any sort of file or anything. However, they were things that anybody with the same information and surveillance could reason out.

And there had been someone in one of his lookout points.

Grimacing, he looked down at the dead man and cleaned his knife. Someone was going to notice this position going dark. He left the building quietly and headed down the street in the opposite direction of McAllen and Shichimu for the moment.

It was fifteen minutes before he'd decided that he wasn't being followed and started to turn back for where he'd left them before moving on to check the secondary site.

Moving carefully and checking his corners, he still felt a little off. There was a feeling like he was missing something or had forgotten something and left him frowning.

He started running a scenario in his head, just how would he follow someone in this case. How far back would he walk and what paths would he take. Without looking down or saying it out loud, he started measuring his pace and thinking about Nimu's pace.

There was something that was pretty firm in his mind.

The sniper turned around a corner and put his back to the wall, drawing his knife and counting beats out before slashing his knife into the open space at the corner.

There was a thud and a gasp as the image of one Kodachi's bodies was just there with a knife through her chest. It wasn't as if it faded into view, it was more like he suddenly realized for the first time that she was there the entire time.

"Damn it," the body said as blood trickled out of her mouth. "I don't have too many with this power."

And then the form toppled to the ground and Kurz took off at a run before a call could be made zeroing in a collection of thugs to his position.

Or worse, a Kodachi with a more offensive power.

* * *

It was another thirty minutes before he arrived where McAllen and Shichimu were waiting for him.

"Mr. Weber," Shichimu said in relief as he came into the room. "I was getting worried."

"They were there?" McAllen said before noting the package Kurz was carrying.

"Yeah, all over the place," Kurz said. "Scratch one Kodachi, tried to do some sort of mental forgot she was there trick to make herself invisible."

"And you killed her how?" McAllen asked.

"I channeled Sagara and let paranoia guide me," he said, looking out the window of the small abandoned store front that McAllen had scouted when they first started the mission.

His lieutenant had also thought to leave a bit of care package in place, just in case.

McAllen moved up next to Kurz and whispered, glancing back toward the girl.

"I don't like this," he said. "First we get those traitorous creeps on the SRT and then this freak is in on both our official exit plans?"

"Yeah, looking like a big time mole all right," Kurz agreed. "Do you have any contacts in this area, sir?"

"Not as such," he said. "And I'll bet she has the cops on us in a little bit. And she'll sick the cops on us next."

He thought carefully a moment and then nodded.

"Okay, we're leaving the city," he said, turning toward the Ni so the girl could hear.

"Isn't that what we were trying to do?" she asked.

"No, we were trying to get a particular meeting," Kurz said. "Now we're just leaving."

"I saw a car down the street we can use," McAllen noted. "Don't forget to grab gear from the cache."

"Don't worry about me forgetting something like that," Kurz said.

They were out into the streets then quietly, breaking into the little European box car and piling into it and heading out down the streets in their little car, Shichimu in the back seat and trying to keep down as they moved along through the streets.

They were stopped at a traffic light when Kurz noticed a handful of familiar mercenaries and they turned to notice him.

"Go, go!" he shouted as the mercenaries started drawing pistols and rushing forward at the little car as it sped off.

"Great, now they're going to have a description of the car," he said.

"It's a piece of sh...junk," he glanced back toward Shichimu, "European car and there's a dozen like it just in view. Just go! Ummm...sir."

"Wouldn't she usually send some of my sisters for this?" Shichimu asked.

"Maybe if we hadn't freed most of them in the area just recently," McAllen said. "And I'm getting the feeling she's not trusting missions to just anybody anymore."

They got out of the view of the mercenaries and merged into traffic heading onto one of the major through fares out of the city heading further north, towards West Germany and other places.

Things seemed to be calming down again when they were getting close to the outside of the city and a shrill cacophony of sounds made itself apparent to them.

"What the hell is that?" McAllen wondered.

The unmistakable sound of screeching tires followed by a crash and the distant sign of an explosion down the road brought them to a brief stop as Kurz stepped out of the cat briefly and rose his scope to his eyes.

Down below them at the head of the road, people seemed to be going ahead and screaming their heads off as they tried to run away from...something. They didn't seem to be heading in any one direction, just running randomly terrified, viciously attacking anything that got in their way.

He scanned back and watched as a handful of people watching in their cars or along the street were suddenly gripped with what looked like a severe amount of pain before they too were engaging in the fearful activity.

In the midst of the chaos was an organized group of people in black tactical gear moving up the road and watching the people as they grew fearful and moved about tearing things apart in the urge to be away. At the center was one of the Kodachi Kuno bodies, walking very slowly and clearly concentrating from car to car.

"Ah hell," Kurz said. "We've got to get out of here now."

McAllen stepped back and looked down the road, not seeing the detail that Kurz was but recognizing a plan to flush out something that was hiding.

"Everybody!" the lieutenant shouted at the top of his lungs to the people near enough to hear. "Get out of here."

Kurz meanwhile reached into the car and pulled out a rifle, nothing more than an old hunting rifle, but it was all he really needed at the moment. He attached the scope and sighted down toward the woman in the street so casually spreading the fear that was tearing people apart down there.

A shot rang out and the woman fell as the people still in control of themselves around Kurz and McAllen called out in shock and scattered away from him.

The riots were still going on, but at least without her, there was a chance that they'd calm down naturally.

"Go!" McAllen said. "After that we're definitely going to have cops on us."

"Yeah, not much choice on the matter thought," Kurz said as he slung his rifle back over his shoulder, detaching and pocketing the scope in the same motion.

He took Shichimu's hand and they darted aside from the road in between some of the buildings that were there. McAllen came up behind them, holding his pistol and looking for any sort of trouble.

"Careful, that was too blatant to be anything but something to flush us out," McAllen said.

"Yeah," Kurz said. "I know."

They came to the edge of the town then, hills and forests not a hundred feet out, and stopped as Kurz pulled his scope out again and scanned the area.

"Damn it," he said. "They have a position on the hill to the left, how many minions does this bi...woman have anyway?"

"She has a lot," Shichimu asserted quietly.

The sound of gunfire behind them several blocks away attracted their attention.

"And sounds like she's still got her men pushing for her," McAllen noted.

"Is she doing all this just to get me?" Shichimu said. "Why? I can't do anything really powerful."

McAllen snorted.

"Trust me on this one when we say that the last thing we want her to be able to do is look anywhere in the world she wants," Kurz said.

"Let's get up this street," McAllen said, pointing to the side towards a steep rising street at the top of which a bunch of barrels sat outside a warehouse. "Then we'll have the other side of this hill and be sliding down the back end of it."

"And, what's that going to do?" Kurz asked.

"Working for this organization and you've never read the Hobbit?" McAllen asked.

"What are you talking about?" Kurz asked before glancing up the hill. "Are you crazy? I might be able to pull that off, but there's no way you..."

"I'll find my own way out," McAllen promised him. "That's the way you're going and that's an order."

* * *

A shot rang out and one of Kodachi's minions collapsed to the ground as the others took cover.

"There they are," one of them shouted. "We'll get them now. Head up there, we've got them covered on both sides from this point."

One of the mercs nodded with a smirk as he chambered his gun and started darting up the small hill toward the warehouse at the top.

Almost immediately, he ducked aside as a rolling barrel came down the hill at him followed by another and another.

"Keep going," his commander said, pushing forward and dodging aside another barrel as it rolled down the hill down toward the river below. "They're pressing from the other side too."

A dozen mercenaries pushed their way up the front slope toward the warehouse on the edge of town, and they had radio reports from a number of other units heading up as well. All of them were dodging barrels as they went along.

* * *

One of the barrels struck the base of a tree and cracked open letting Kurz kick himself free of the item and pull out, standing in a very disoriented dizzy fashion before he tracked in on Shichimu's voice nearby and broke her free of the barrel she was in.

"That was scary," she said, trying to hold her feet and clutching Kurz as she did so. "Wh...where is Mr McAllen?"

Kurz frowned as he led her into the trees then and looked back up the hill.

"Remember he said he'd find his own way out?" Kurz noted darkly.

"He's going to die, isn't he?" Shichimu said quietly.

"Nah, he'll get out," Kurz said without much conviction.

* * *

McAllen looked around from behind his cover towards the various men that had converged on his position and grimaced. There weren't any good gaps in the net for him to slip through.

"You've caused something of a mess," a woman's voice said from outside.

He glanced up and saw Kodachi walking toward him casually.

"Why don't you come out here and we'll talk things over," the woman said in an incredibly soothing tone of voice.

It sounded like a good id...

He shook his head immediately and cleared his mind as well as he could. It was evilly clear just what this body's ability was. Just thank goodness the woman, if she could really be called that, hadn't learned how to share powers yet.

Hopefully they didn't know that was possible.

"I think you may not have heard me," Kodachi said. "We want the three of you to come out and...talk things over. I'm sure after a brief conversation, we'll be able to come to an understanding."

The soothing sound of the woman's voice slipped insidiously through his ears and he found himself struggling to avoid standing up out into the clear.

"Now, now," she repeated, each word pushing him up to action until he was standing straight with a number of guns pointed his way and staring across at one Kodachi Kuno's bodies. "That's better, now go ahead and come closer while we wait for the other two of you to see reason."

"I'm not coming over there, bitch," McAllen said tightly.

"Oh, yes, yes you are," the Kodachi noted. "OhhHOHOHOHOHOO! Yes you are. And do put down that gun, I've lost enough bodies already this action I think."

Even the shrill laugh was appealing somehow and against his will, McAllen felt his legs dragging across the scene as the pistol in one hand clattered uselessly to the ground. He reached up toward his chest into his jacket, as if to draw another gun, but the bluff was taken for what it was by the woman.

Slowly, eventually, he found himself standing tall over the woman that was forcing him to act so and looking down at the blonde roots of her hair.

"Oh crap," McAllen said as he realized the importance of that.

"Yes," the woman holding one Kodachi's bodies noted. "Now where are the other two..."

His hand came out of his jacket and several small metal objects clattered off of his fingers to the ground.

"What are tho..." Kodachi paused and took a heavy breath. "Oh bother."

The grenades under McAllen's jacket exploded outward ripping the stolen body to pieces along with a fair number of her mercenaries.

Kurz and Shichimu were well gone from the area before any of Legion could pick up the trail again.

* * *

"No, you're kidding," Mao said, snickering.

"I'm really not," Ranma said. "His name was Pantyhose Tarou."

"Pantyhose?" Mao said laughing out loudly in a way that was very far from ladylike.

It brought a number of stares from across the lobby of the Kabuki theater they were just leaving.

"Who names a kid Pantyhose?" she wondered.

"Freak perverts who steal underwear," the man beside her said.

"And that was his big goal in life," Melissa said, slightly tipsy. "He wanted to change his name?"

"He also wanted to rule the world," Ranma said, smirking, "but first he wanted to change his name, yeah."

"That's some freaky childhood there," Mao said with a chuckle as she leaned against Ranma to steady herself. "You know, you'd think being immortal would make one's alcohol tolerance higher."

"Judging by the number of myths that have Gods or Demons drunk, poisoned or ill?" Ranma asked snickering. "I don't imagine it's a common trait to be immune to poison."

"I don't want to be immune," Mao said quickly with spritely twinkle. "That wouldn't be any fun. I just want to be able to go longer before it shows."

"You drank about three times the alcohol I did and I'm not much better off," the martial artist noted. "I'm just better at hiding it."

"Lightweight," Mao teased playfully. "You, 'Mr. Kurosawa', are a lightweight. You shouldn't be affected by a mere...what was it, liter of saki? Or was it two?"

Ranma was about to answer when something clattered to the ground ahead of him and he turned to look and saw a familiar figure leaning on the wall next to her. At her feet was an oblong object wrapped in cloth and her purse.

"Excuse me," the woman said, tightly, clutching her hand tightly. "You reminded me of someone."

She started to lean over to pick up her things and winced visibly at the simplest effort to start to lean forward.

"Here, let me get that for you," Melissa said, moving forward to carefully lean down and collect the items to hand to the woman.

It took a grunt of effort and working around the walking cast, but she still managed it quicker and easier than it took for the woman to simply bend part way over.

"Maybe you should sit down," Mao offered carefully. "You don't look like you're in the best shape."

"I shall be fine," the woman said tightly. "Thanks for your help, I imagine it was difficult for you in your state of inebriation."

Mao glanced back toward Ranma, who was oddly silent, and then back toward the woman.

"Excuse me?" she demanded angrily. "What the hell is that for gratitude?"

"I imagine she's not thinking clearly," Ranma said, coming up to Mao's side. "Who did you think I reminded you of?"

"My son," the woman said. "He...died, yes...several years ago, quite heroically, but one always hopes that they'll return someday."

"One of my children ran off on his own for a couple of months recently," Ranma said. "I know exactly what you mean."

"Is there something going on here?" Mao asked.

Ranma looked over toward her and nodded slightly.

"You really should sit down," Ranma said. "You look like you're in pain."

"Of course, I'm in pain," she said proudly, straightening herself. "It's the fourth day, so it is getting very bad. Tomorrow I'll probably not be able to walk far at all. And by the end of the next day, I'll be hallucinating. Then it will start to get better, and just about the time it's almost gone on the sixth day, it starts coming back."

"Good Lord," Mao said. "Lady, have you been to a doctor for that?"

"Yes, of course I've been to a doctor," she said. "They say they can't find anything. Something about spontaneous flare ups of the cells. They think I'm making it happen to myself, like some belief thing."

It was also clear that the pain had already started to work its way into her head since she was spontaneously telling them this information, but she kept lucid enough to at least keep on track with the situation.

"Six days of pain and six days of recovery?" Ranma asked.

"Yes, six then six," she said, leaning against the wall. "The six when I can't think straight for more than ten minutes, or the six where I can think clearly and the pain is leaving, but I know it's coming."

She shook her head then and looked around suddenly confused.

"Excuse me," she said. "I've let myself wander again...this isn't house. Just let me into this building and I'll call my husband to pick me up."

Ranma glanced over at Mao and gave her a gesture to indicate for her to wait as he helped Nodoka into the theater.

"So kind, if my son were alive, I'd hope he was as manly and thoughtful as you," she said.

"Though I assume you'd accept him regardless of what he was like when came back," Ranma said. "That is what mothers do after all, take in their children."

There was a furtive look across the woman's face as Ranma helped her sit down.

"Of course," she said in a calculated tone. "Of course I would accept him regardless."

She emphasized the "him" very strongly and glanced around carefully.

Ranma walked over to talk to some of the theater staff to help her. He walked back toward Mao and watched as an involuntary spasm worked its way over her body with a wince.

"She was lying about her son being dead," Mao noted quietly as they walked away.

"I definitely know that," Ranma said, holding Mao steady so as to counter both the injured leg and the alcohol.

They walked a few more yards down the street before he continued.

"That was my mother," he explained.

Mao's head snapped up and she looked back toward the theater and up toward Ranma.

"Thank God," she said with a sigh.

"What?" Ranma asked, surprised. "Relieved I was born a guy for sure?"

"Nah," Mao said, waving her hand dismissively. "I was worried I was falling for an old traditionalist. Instead I find I'm with a fellow black sheep. Now...all you have to do is talk about you ran out on an arranged marriage like I did, and we've got it made."

"Well, two actually," Ranma said, recognizing Mao's tipsy attempt to get his mind off the encounter.

"Oh! That's just great," Melissa roared. "Kurosawa..." and she slowed down to remind herself to use the right name "...you are officially in my good graces."

* * *

Nimu felt herself free of gravity's hold for approximately a full second before she slammed back down to the mat below her, eyes wide in surprise.

"We are in a basic spar," Shampoo said sharply in clear disapproval. "Using basic skills. Moving things with your mind is not a basic skill!"

The Chinese woman circled around her fallen student prodding her side with a toe.

"You strike, you evade," she said. "This is basic. When you stop to do fancy things with your mind, you are distracted and open. Something that creates an opening is not an advantage."

"I just got to where I can use this without worrying about getting called to my twisted freak of a mother and disappearing," she noted. "And you want me not to use it. What about if I have comrades watching my back."

Shampoo looked up and across the room to where Yaku Go was playing on her hologram computer and then down at Nimu.

"You wish to protect your sisters?" she asked.

"Of course," Nimu said, coming to a seated position. "Can't I do that best if I use all of my powers."

"You want to build a house without foundations?" the Amazon asked. "Wait, of course you do, you are a Kuno, what else would you do?"

"I am not taking that woman's name," Nimu said standing up. "And when I see her I'm going to..."

She reached out and telekinetically pulled one of the axes off the wall to send toward Shampoo.

The Amazon looked almost bored as she caught it and twisted it around to slash just in front of Nimu's face and across the training hall into one of the weapon's dummies that showed signs of hacking all ready.

Nimu's bangs drifted down to the floor.

"Kodachi is a pathetic fighter," Shampoo said. "But you are worse than I remember her. And you take too long and too much effort to move anything significant. Ranma did not learn any special chi techniques before she mastered the basics. Nor did I."

"You do something more than just fighting?" Nimu asked curiously.

Shampoo held out her arms to either side and let both her eyebrows rise up, her palms held loosely out invitingly.

"Attack," she noted.

Nimu hesitated and Shampoo simply stared at her expectantly.

Gritting her teeth in determination, Nimu stepped forward as quickly as she knew how, and found herself pushed up and over Shampoo on the edge of a great ball of energy that seemed to appear around the woman.

"Continue," Shampoo said, without looking at Nimu.

With a war cry, Nimu came in only to have Shampoo sidestep away and with something that looked like barely a wave of the hand, pushed the girl away into a hurtling projectile across the room toward's Ranma's collection of sharp weaponry.

Only to stop dead inches away from the steel weapons and then thump to the ground.

Yaku looked up from her computer game and stared blinking before laughing out loud.

"Cool! Can you do it again?" she asked.

"I don't think it will prove necessary again," Shampoo noted.

"You're telekinetic!" Nimu accused standing up and walking into Shampoo's face.

"Of course not, you idiot!" the Amazon returned. "I am a chi master. Raw chi can imitate much, such as by latching a rope of chi around a stubborn pupil to stop her cold at a certain distance, but it is not telekinesis."

"Why aren't you teaching me how to do that?" Nimu asked.

Shampoo sighed and looked over toward Yaku.

"I was given the impression she was intelligent," the Amazon noted.

"Big Big sister is smart," Yaku said. "She can drive a car."

"Yes, I see," Shampoo noted, taking not of the equations running across the hologram Yaku's computer was using as a screen.

Turning back toward Nimu she crossed her arms.

"You must first strike and evade naturally," Shampoo said. "To be able to place thought and act all at once. Make a decision and let the body carry it out, not micromanage every muscle for every strike. Your eyes see, your body reacts. Instantly."

"Like a reflex?" Nimu asked.

Shampoo pinched the bridge of her nose and then whacked Nimu on the head.

"Reflex?" she snapped. "You cannot control reflex. If you train a strike into a reflex, then you will strike an ally whenever the reflex is triggered by one. No, nor reflex. Not instinct."

She took a breath and thought for a moment.

"Nature," she said finally. "You get up in the morning in the same way everyday correct? You realize its morning and you wake up and get to your feet."

"This is true," Nimu said. "But I fail to see..."

"You can choose not to get up," Shampoo said. "You can choose to get up differently, but still you get up almost the same instant you think about doing so. This is what you want, a movement so familiar that it takes no effort to guide. When you can do this, you can plan and think in battle without leaving openings. And then we will teach you to fight with your mind."

* * *

Yaku stepped away from watching Nimu getting repetitively whacked on the head by the Chinese woman and walked back to the table to set her Athenian computer down and start typing away as she sat down.

Her feet kicked in and out underneath her as she ran scenarios and possibilities on her computer and her mind while humming along. They'd said that Nimu was her legal guardian, despite having once tried to kidnap her, because Deimosu wasn't old enough.

And that didn't make sense because Deimosu was older than Nimu by at least a year or two.

Somebody had assured her that Nimu looked like she was old enough to be a guardian though.

In the meantime, she was working on the whole mini-game thing for making sure nobody else had access that they didn't want people to have.

About three Starcraft massacres ago, Yaku was in the middle of a fourth and wondering what some of the words she was seeing meant, Sarah had come in talking about how other people had handled the same problem.

"So, it's like loan sharks or grant approval," Deimosu's mother had told her and Sarah at that meeting.

"Lone sharks?" Yaku had asked. "You mean like Big Brother's sister, Naiki?"

"Uhh, no," the woman had said.

"Why'd they do things that way?" Sarah had asked.

The answer for that had come from the pretty girl with the lavender hair.

"Demons have traditionally used black magic as a way of forcing aid and trapping people they consider enemies or criminals," she'd said. "The entire system is a weapon that they can choose to use at anytime against someone who tapped into it."

"And the people getting hurt in the crossfire when their targets used those spells, collateral damage," Ranma noted. "The Gods probably wanted originally to hype the whole worship thing and check to see what someone wanted before they let them use the spell."

Yaku watched the adult and teenagers talk and typed through to connect to the internet, since they were on Earth at the moment, and look for terms like "credit card", "lone shark" and "grant approval".

And, wow, financial math was interesting.

But she'd already digressed from there to other things.

"Personally, I don't like magic," Ranma said. "It feels like slipping into the back of someone's head and rooting around their mind for something you want. It's just...just...ewww..."

"You sound funny," Yaku said laughing. "You're too old to say 'eww'."

She pointed at her computer screen.

"Did you know English letters could all be turned into numbers?" she asked. "They call it numerology."

Tessa, Sarah and Ranma exchanged a look and tried to repress a smile with varying degrees of success or failure.

And then she'd been asked to leave the room briefly before coming back in. That usually meant they were talking about her, but it didn't sound like anybody was mad this time, so she hadn't been worried.

Anyway, she was busy winning a Starcraft match and puzzling out strange words.

"Big Big Sister," she called out toward the training area.

"We are busy right now, child," Shampoo said.

"What do these words mean?" she asked. "I keep seeing them when I play this game."

The front door started to open.

"I don't know if it was a bad day," Yonjuu was saying. "Deimosu would think 'twelve' alot and then beat people up. And that one girl made people hallucinate or something."

"I had a great day!" Sanya said loudly. "Everyone was so impressed with my great feats of skill and intelligence. OhhhHOHOHOHO!"

"I'll just leave her here before I strangle her," Skuld said.

"Can you read these words?" Nimu asked, panting...and getting knocked to the floor for the distraction.

"Pay attention to..."

"'Benefit, you fucking swarming bitch slut. I'm going to rape your eyes and stuff them up your...'"

Yaku stopped as she looked around to see several people standing around her computer and looking at the screen with extremely scary faces.

"Umm, is something wrong?" Yaku asked.

"Give me that," Skuld said angrily as she sat down and snatched Yaku's computer.

* * *

"Can you believe how damn cheap this 'Benefit' is?" a random gamer asked. "I swear she's using some sort of hack or..."

"ChibiHammer just logged into the server, dude," his friend said.

"In the middle of a game?" the first noted. "See, told you Benefit was hacking. Chibi never shows up in the middle of a game for no reason."

A flashing message popped up on the game screen.

"It'll take me ten seconds to check the logs and see who was cussing out the eight year old girl, better be gone by then."

And then it started counting down.

"Dude, disconnect, disconnect!" his friend said while in a hurry to shut down his own laptop completely and physically remove the wireless card from its external slot while gesturing at his friend's tower.

"What is she talking about eight year old, there's no way that was an eight year old," the first gamer said. "And what can she do, fry my mother board through the internet?"

At which point the countdown hit zero and the unfortunate kid watched a process list surge up into huge numbers as overheating warnings struggled through the huge use schedule to fill up on his screen, though the smoke from his machine was the first actual sign he had of what was going on.

And then several bursts of light flared out from the tower and faded away into a thick smoke that hovered in the air above.

"Yes, yes she can fry your mother board through the internet," his friend said.

* * *

"I'm only three," Yaku told Skuld as she watched the Goddess type out the message.

"All right," Skuld said firmly. "That should handle that for now."

"You gave them a warning," Shampoo said. "Followed by?"

"Forcing their computers to overwork into a swift burnout," Skuld noted. "And they might not have realized Yaku was a kid, so gave them a headstart. Anybody who knows me should have known better than to stay online."

"Is that a spell?" Naiki asked. "I thought that the Gods' magic was screwed up too."

"Spell nothing," Skuld said. "I'm a damn genius! I could probably outvirus most of Nifelheim!"

"Really?" Naiki asked.

"No...no, not really," Skuld said reluctantly. "But I can definitely outvirus a stupid gamer with a tweaked out tower and two year-old security protocols."

"Can I go back to playing now?" Yaku asked.

* * *

"Well," General Hammond asked. "How did we miss this, people?"

"Carter?" Jack said, gesturing to the Major.

"Well, sir," Carter said. "We think it's because there are no set physical links connecting Earth and either Asgard or Nifelheim. The residents simply travel themselves or craft a temporary gate. It would explain how those worlds were able to shut off all travel from the outside. Our explorations have been mostly through to places with a permanent link, most of which we've managed to reroute here."

"We do think we know how those links got there now," Daniel said.

"And how is that?" Hammond asked.

"The Gods and Demons seem to have a usual method of dealing with some enemies," Teal'c explained. "I believe O'Neil stated it best."

"Their SOP is the Sealed Evil in a Can, general," O'Neil said. "Someone comes across something they can't quite kill or aren't allowed to kill...so they put it in a box and hide the box."

"You're basically saying that a lot of the hidden places are forgotten prison colonies," Hammond said.

"That would account for most of them," Carter said. "Especially the small ones, but not all. However, when you start to include the human spellcasters that may have been using the same seal arts to make little private hide-aways for themselves..."

"Or not so little in the case of Atlantis," O'Neil said.

"There is another potential side to this," Teal'c said. "These individuals bare some apparent relationship to the Enki and the Yaron. The Demoness mentioned calling themselves Keepers, which is the meaning of Enki and there was some mention of 'singers' which relates to the meaning the Yaron."

"But neither of those species is anything remotely close to human in either appearance or thought," Hammond said.

"Or humility," Daniel added. "Well makes sense. Asgard and Nifelheim are lifeboats and you generally don't have just one lifeboat."

"So the freaks we all know and hate are the ones that went out and haven't completely found their way back yet and got cut off from everyone else," O'Neil said. "And these are the ones that stayed close to home and kept up with the new fads."

"Yeah, that's one way to put it," Carter said struggling not to correct the oversimplification. "The main problem on our end is what they said about weakening seals."

"How so?" Hammond asked.

"If the seals are derivations of the technique used to create Asgard and Nifelheim, like I think," Carter said. "And we've been dealing with the seals that were created by small time 'wizards' making interdimensional laboratories or which were opened up by the deaths of Gods and Demons over a long period of truce..."

"And now we have a full out war," Hammond said looking toward the world map on the world. "Our cosmology is about get a lot more complex."

"There's also the fact that Psyche is who we've used to collect the physical links all this time, while we focused on dealing with off-world stuff," Carter said. "And now they're prepping full blown for invasion by Asgard and Nifelheim rebels."

"And what are we looking at for danger level?" Hammond asked.

"Belldandy, the Goddess representative, mentioned category 1 Demons and Gods," he said. "People with the power necessary to personally prevent a global catastrophe or cause one. The current fear is that the Demon rebels will grant that level of power to their troops. While the Gods on the other hand..."

"Have a large number of vehicles that might as well do the same thing," Teal'c said. "It is hoped that either Mithril or the Gods will be able to supply enough power to counter those situations when the time comes."

"Any recommendations on how we can help with the situation?" Hammond asked.

"Well, with the Demons and Gods deciding to go public," Daniel said. "The other hidden places will come up eventually. We might be able to offer evacuation and staging areas."

"There wasn't much to do about this, General," O'Neil said. "At least from our end. It was all going on in Asgard and Whifflebat's backyards and they were looking the wrong way."

"And we're looking out in their abandoned summer homes and prison cells," Hammond said. "This would just about be the perfect time for something to try to come in at us from one of the deep worlds."

He shook his head and leaned back.

"So are we revealing the extensive explorations we've done?" Teal'c asked.

"For now, no," Hammond said. "We're going to wait for Mithril to do some in house cleaning first."

* * *

There was a slowly setting sun ahead on the horizon, the red light streaking down and mixing with oranges and violets to touch the top of a tree-crowned hill that once upon a time had a police car hurtling down it at breakneck speed in an attempt to catch a pair of teenagers riding double on a bike.

Unbidden a similar image of riding double entered two minds, neither really sure who had initiated it, though the logical guess would have put it on the girl that had been riding double on the bike at the time.

Kaname flushed a bit and pushed the image away as Eija momentarily leaned into the sketchpad in front of her a little more than she had been.

"Is there something wrong?" Sousuke asked nervously as he felt the rise in tension around him.

Eija was sitting immediately beside him with her sketchpad, staring across the path toward a large mirror she'd borrowed from her home's training area and set down to give her an easy view of how the three of them were sitting.

Kaname was immediately behind, sitting on the bench that Eija was currently leaning against. Sousuke's back was leaning against her knees as she leaned down to cut at his hair in small snips and bits.

"Is something wrong?" Kaname asked with a laugh. "I take the two of you to get a haircut and you both just about freak out."

"Yes, well, it was uncomfortably familiar," Eija said quietly. "There is a reason I keep my hair long."

"Affirmative for myself as well," Sousuke noted as he held stock still and let Kaname cut his hair.

It was somewhat odd that letting her do this was both easier and more difficult than it was to let the man from the fashion shop. Where Kaname was holding his head and pushing it around was a lot rougher than the other man had started with, but the rising fear that the scissors might suddenly be turned on him was completely absent.

There was another sort of fear entirely at the moment. At least it felt like fear.

He couldn't really describe it any better. It was an anxiety and fear that something might...not?...happen.

Whether Eija's arm brushing against his side as she sketched away, or the way Kaname firmly held him in place as she snipped at his hair with care that was clearly exaggerated by concern.

Or Eija glancing up at him rather than looking toward the mirror and glancing away from him quickly with a flush to her face.

Or when Kaname gave him some teasing, unfathomable comment relating to the world of Japan and speaking in a tone of voice that was calm despite the fact he could tell from her heart beat she wasn't.

Or the furtive unreadable messages between the two girls that seemed to be half complete thoughts that filtered on the edge of his new Ainur awareness.

Each brief conflict sent a wave of tension through him that he could feel echoed in either girl. And he wasn't sure what the source of the tension was save that it was disappointed by the continued nothing.

And there was a vague part of him that hoped something would happen but afraid that it would hurt one or both girls.

"Yeah, I probably should have thought about doing anything that involved putting sharp objects near either of you," Kaname said in a cheerful manner that was a clear apology.

"It's all right," Eija said aloud.

"You know...I'm...almost done here..." Kaname hesitated briefly. "If you sit around in front of Sousuke, I can probably lean over and do your hair, Eija."

_Wha...what are you up to?_ Eija asked.

All three teens blushed at the suggestion.

"Wo...would that be okay," Eija asked, looking up toward Sousuke and Kaname.

"If it would make things easier..." Sousuke said in a slow, careful voice. "And it wouldn't upset your sketch..."

"No..." Eija said. "I haven't started to draw us yet."

"Okay..." Kaname said breathlessly and trying to calm down herself. "Go ahead and...uh, move to his la...to sitting in front of him then."

Hesitantly, shuffling about, Eija did move to stand up briefly and reposition herself in front of Sousuke, with one leg stretched out beside her and the other bent, knee up on her other side. Almost perfectly holding her inside.

Her faced flushed more brightly red than ever and she forcibly concentrated on keeping her hand still as she started to go back to drawing.

"Hey...uh, Sousuke," Kaname said. "Go ahead and start undoing Eija's braid...please it'll go...faster that way."

The Whispered girl took a deep breath herself and brought the hand with the scissors up to wipe at her forehead even she glanced around to see if anybody was watching their mildly scandalous activity.

"Is that all right, Satomi?" he asked. "Satomi?"

"Eija?" Kaname asked.

_Please don't tell me I broke you._

_...I'm...fine..._

Slowly she nodded and started moving again.

Very carefully reaching forward to take Eija's hair, Sousuke pushed his hand unintentionally into the small of her back through the fabric of her uniform. It was a firm touch, tender in the manner of a suddenly realized contact.

In the same moment, Kaname laid her hands on Sousuke's shoulders and leaned forward to blow the loose hairs off the back of his neck. The breath became something more subtle and susurrous, lacking the force needed for the intention, but carrying something more intimate.

It was like a sparkle of electricity came to life between all three points of contact; physical, mental and emotional; and through all three teens, kept cycling through the infinity between moments. No words even between the thoughts of the girls and just a stuttering of breaths and shuddering of hands.

Then that moment was gone, and they started moving again, but the electrifying feeling remained cascading through them, even jumping across the short distances between and arching, re-arching and forming a growing network of interlinked tingles on their skin.

Kaname had the most handle on what that feeling implied, having already admitted to herself and Eija some of that, but even she had only the most vague concept of what sort of depths they were surging into. Her mind kept wandering towards some of the sexual imagery she'd seen occasionally over her teen years.

Her link with Eija was almost completely flooded with raw feeling now, not much in the way of words or even images, getting through. And the exact thing seemed to be flowing between her and Sousuke then,

No, scratch the seem. It was...there was a definite matching of...something there between her and the soldier boy.

"Per...perhaps there is something I could do?" Eija suggested. "I feel very...passive..."

"You're sketching us aren't you?" Kaname asked with a flush, wondering just how she and Sousuke were going to show up in that picture, especially as distracted as Eija happened to be.

"Chidori is correct...Satomi," Sousuke said quietly. "You are doing...something."

He shifted slightly trying...not to get comfortable, he actually felt very comfortable. So comfortable that it was scary just how comfortable it could be. And that paradox ran through his mind, wondering just how comfort could be scary.

It slowly began to creep up on him, as Kaname leaned forward to start to work on Eija's and her hair touched lightly to his shoulders and over his cheeks.

This comfort...was near perfect.

There was something even beyond this that he had only a vague sense of. And there was something that was almost a different expression of this state that his body seemed eager for, but which he himself was only vaguely aware of as he pulled his hands out of Kaname's way and circled around Eija's waist protectively.

As Kaname started to carefully snip at Eija's hair, the Goddess knew that Kaname's lips were close to Sousuke's and equally aware of Sousuke's presence at her back and around her belly. It was like a fire reflected.

She could feel Kaname's passions burning and it stoked her own heat, which in turn pushed Kaname's higher. And that heat was equally felt rising in Sousuke. There weren't words, but she knew Kaname could feel the rising tension in their shared...love just as well. And it was clear that, even without a telepathic link, Sousuke could feel the same thing and was growing ever more anxious himself.

"Have you..." Kaname started to say before stopping herself.

"Yes?" both Eija and Sousuke said in gasps almost like the release of pressure from a burdened steam valve.

"Uh...Sousuke, do you..." Kaname hesitated again.

There was no way to be subtle about this, he just wouldn't get it. Both of them, to some degree, had only a vague notion of relationships and the like.

"Do you think about getting married?"

Sousuke held his breath and Eija felt his hands flutter around her and starting shiver again.

"Maybe..." Kaname continued in a soft whisper.

"I...have not..." Sousuke said with a slight twinge of realized sadness. "But...I would...have a difficult choice."

Sousuke's mouth worked into a tight, anxious frown as he tried to work out the problem.

"What if...you didn't," Eija asked, taking action.

She had to take some initiative herself. Her Searching had told her that. Too often she just let herself go with the flow. And she wasn't going to do that with Kaname and Sousuke, be a lingering passenger weighing them down.

The Goddess had to be an equal partner with them. Equal in everything.

"What if you didn't have to choose?" the pale girl asked. "What if...there were a...matched set."

She put her pen down, the picture was pretty much done and she was terrified that she'd mess it up with the way her emotions currently ran.

"If...no one were hurt..." he said quietly.

"What if the only way someone gets hurt..." Eija said just below him, leaning back and looking up into his eyes.

"...is if any of us are..." Kaname continued.

"...are apart." Sousuke finished. He'd meant it as a question...but it didn't feel or sound like one.

There was a unisoned heavy release of breath between the three, as if suddenly a great burden had been released and Sousuke suddenly had a feeling that something had happened, and it was good, but he still wasn't entirely sure what it was. He just hoped he could protect this.

Eija closed her eyes and let herself lean all the way back as all tension faded and she could suddenly relax, while still feeling as if her heart was traveling a sprint, being held quietly in both Sousuke's and Kaname's arms. Something she'd only ever let her mother do before.

Kaname kissed the side of Sousuke's head and quietly went back to finishing styling and cutting Eija's hair. There was an incredible giddiness to her, as intense as Eija was suddenly relaxed. And she couldn't stop herself from chatting, either verbally or telepathically as they continued sitting there until after the sun set and they'd have to go their different ways until the sun came back up and until they were living...

...somewhere together.


	38. High Score: Shichimu

"Well, if this were a normal day off on leave situation for me," Mao said, turning around at the top of the stairs to look down toward Ranma. "This would normally be where I invite you in for the night. But, I really don't think that between the cane, the sling, the alcohol and the fact you've spent seventeen years...in the wrong country for this sort of thing...that we'd get anything but disappointment out of that."

"Why would the cane be involved?" Ranma asked.

She leaned forward with a smile.

"Wouldn't you like to find out," she asked "But, I know you're not a first date sort of person."

Ranma nodded with a slight smile and moved up by her, making sure she didn't spill herself down the stairs and end up with another couple of weeks of medical leave or worse.

"Let's be careful," he said. "Or the world's second Ainur will die falling down a flight of stairs drunk. Not the best of legends."

"I'm sure it would be an epic fall," Mao laughed.

They got to the door and Mao opened it as Ranma watched for signs of anybody watching them. It didn't matter that she was well capable of taking care of herself.

So was he.

Mao turned about in the hallway and leaned against the wall, not in a pained or overly drunk manner, but just in the manner of someone who wants to leave but lacks the use of one arm to do it the way they wanted.

He'd noticed that Mao liked to lean numerous times.

"If I tread too close to some subjects," she said with less of her normal trace of irreverence. "Made light of things...you'd say something right?"

"Mao, the guy is supposed to be the one walking on egg shells," he said.

"I'll take that as a 'I had a good date' and go to bed I think," Mao said recovering herself.

"Rest that leg," Ranma reminded her playfully.

"Pfft," Mao returned, rolling her eyes. "Don't lecture the drill sergeant."

* * *

Ranma, once again female, walked into her office not long after the setting of the sun and found Yomiko looking through a number of different reports and sorting them out.

"Well?" she asked, taking off her gloves but leaving her jacket on.

"We had an incident at Jindai," Yomiko said. "But reports from Geisthexe and Intelligence say the primary cause was a normal, unconnected human who happens to be a friend of your kids'."

"Is this a lunatic sort of oddball incident?" Ranma asked.

"Yes, actually," the Paper Master said. "Something about extra time to do summer homework."

"Inaba," Ranma noted with a sigh. "Anything else?"

"You have a visitor in the office," Yomiko noted, nodding that way.

Ranma looked into the next room and saw a grim Korean woman sitting there with a handful of dossiers. Ranma glanced up and noticed that her forehead was clear.

"Got it," Ranma said, nodding and walking in. "Who'd you be?"

"Given you're the reason why I'm no longer wearing quite the disguise," the woman said. "I'd think you'd know."

"It really does stand out to anybody that can see auras," Ranma said. "Or has the scent capacity of a Demon..."

She waved her hand to indicate further on and sat down at her desk.

"As I said," the woman noted. "You're reason I dropped the suit. How sober are you right now?"

"I wouldn't be in the office if I was that drunk," Ranma said. "You have a problem with it?"

"Not at all," the woman said in a tone that left that statement in doubt. "You applied for the leave time and got it, though I note most people request leave in slots longer than one day and do something more than go drinking. Though, given I was watching the school it makes it hard to say for sure what was going on with you."

"What do you need?" Ranma asked. "If you're what I think you are, you don't report to me."

"I'm not interested in my reports to you going through normal channels, Director," the woman said. "I trust my superior, but it is clear we have a highly placed mole."

"How do you know it's not me?" Ranma asked.

"Because you let your daughter on to the DaDanaan when Gauron's plan was underway," the woman said. "Shall we get to business or offer proof for how we have reasons to pretend to trust each other."

"Fine, get to it," Ranma said.

"You've got Matsumoto running security detail on Jindai," the woman said. "And given him some Psyche freelancers I noticed. However, we have some issues."

"Related to Inaba's most recent cluster-fuck?" the red-head asked. "The details of which I have yet to here?"

"That was secondary to what I'm bringing up," the Korean woman said harshly. "The Imperial Family sent Amaterasu in with body guards."

Ranma groaned and put a hand to her face.

"How much damage?" she asked.

"Hard to tell for sure," Wraith noted. "However, in addition, Matsumoto's people let her wander into a group of thugs. Fortunately there was an older Immortal on hand."

She handed over a pair of photos and Ranma took them, her eyes widening suddenly before narrowing, almost squinting at the picture and turning it in various directions as if trying to find which way was up.

"Yomiko," the redhead called. "Did Geisthexe leave a report about a new add to the VIP list?"

"Yes, it's on your desk," Yomiko called out.

"Fortunately the school is convinced that some sort of hallucinogen was used," Wraith said dryly. "Physical injuries were minimal. No one is likely to report it. One other thing, I am going to recommend taking Sagara off guard duty."

"Don't do that," Ranma said in a sing song tone.

Wraith grimaced and passed over a print out from a digital camera.

"You have to admit that he's gotten far to close to be an effective bodyguard," Wraith said.

Ranma picked up the picture and shook his head with a twitching smirk.

"So am I," Ranma said. "With regards to Eija."

"You are not assigned to their guard detail," Wraith noted. "He is."

"I'm considering him the boyfriend rather than the guard at this point," Ranma admitted, turning the photo toward Wraith. "Think you can get me this in higher quality?"

Wraith grimaced.

"Look," Ranma said. "Recommend he be taken off, but be left stationed here, with them...call it training with me. I know what having a reason to fight can do to motivate someone."

"We'll see," Wraith noted.

* * *

It was always a problem doing chores of any kind for Hel. Half her body was withered into just about nothing. She couldn't carry much very far because she need to use her good hand to manipulate her crutch.

But she could set herself on a chair and scrub dishes one by one.

There really wasn't much else to do at the moment.

She'd had her first day of school in Japan and surprised the teachers with how well she could speak Japanese despite being ostensibly American. Which was hardly impressive to Hel given she was a Demon and spoke any language that a Demon anywhere had learned.

Natsume was getting her prosthetic reattached after it had been repaired or replaced, Hel wasn't sure which and didn't particularly care.

"You sure you don't need help there?" Akane Saotome asked her, wandering into the kitchen and turning away from her phone.

"I can do this," Hel insisted, again feeling that twinge of guilt at the statement. "Aren't you some sort of military officer? Shouldn't you be marching into the forest to fight monsters like Beowulf into Grendel's den?"

"That was Beowulf's mother," Akane reminded her. "Aren't you Norse?"

The girl winced and momentarily focused on the warm water wrapping about her good hand.

"Grendel's mother was still in Grendel's lair," she protested.

"I guess so," Akane said, turning back to her call. "Yes, dear, I'm off duty right now, watching Hel-chan for Natsume, she had an appointment that started during school. Mmhmm."

She walked to the fridge and opened it up.

"Are the kids having fun in Tokyo?" she asked. "You're heading back to Okinawa tomorrow right?"

Hel went back to washing dishes as Akane continued her call.

The soap in the water clung tighter to her, getting thicker as the human woman in the room with her continued to talk with her husband and then her kids.

The woman had been dead once before, though only briefly. That was something easily visible to Hel's eyes and she briefly wondered what Akane had seen on the other side.

Hel reached into the stack of dishes to grab another to bring over and put where she could scrub at it. Her hand touched something sticky and her lip curled in disgust as she looked over to see what it was.

And found her hand covered in blood pushing it's way up her arm toward her shoulder.

She cried out in shock and pulled back, tipping over her stool and toppling down toward the ground trying to get away from the creeping feeling of fresh warm blood slipping up her skin and drying or rotting.

Akane caught her before she could actually hit and held her firmly.

"Hel! Calm down! What's wrong?" Akane called out.

She shook her hand vigorously, not seeming to hear Akane until the human woman grabbed her hand and held it still and suddenly the blood wasn't there.

She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.

"What the hell is..."

And then the plates above them exploded outward in a brief rain of ceramic shrapnel as Akane dived forward to protect the girl.

* * *

Natsume came into her house and found Hel sitting in a tightly upright stance on the couch next to Akane.

"You are all right?" Natsume asked quickly moving around in front of the girl and keeping a stern face as she looked Hel over.

"She's okay physically," Akane said. "But she's not telling me anything, so up to you."

"What do you mean?" Natsume asked cautiously.

"I've seen one or two hauntings before, Natsume," she said. "Has this been going on since..."

"It's your sister," Hel said. "I can't see her. She only comes sideways."

"I assumed she would settle down after the funeral," Natsume said quietly. "Go on."

"You think Kurumi is haunting you?" Akane asked.

"Didn't she hate Demons?" Hel asked. "I heard her arguing with you."

"No, this isn't about you," Natsume said. "I'm the one who failed."

Akane looked back and forth between the two.

The looks in their faces were...focused, even locked. And a lot more tired than she had first thought.

The naval officer snapped Hel up from the couch.

"Put me down!" Hel shouted. "I can walk for myself!"

"Akane what is the matter with you?" Natsume demanded, reaching forward to take Hel from her.

"No, no," Akane said, dodging past her and heading for the door. "You think this is Kurumi? She didn't have a cruel bone in her body!"

"Who else could it be?" Natsume demanded angrily. "The battlefield was not two hundred feet away from here!"

Akane continued pushing around Natsume to head for the door.

"Natsume stop and think for a moment," Akane said swiftly. "I'm heading for the temple. If Kurumi's anywhere, it's there! And you'd know that if something wasn't poisoning your ear."

"What are you talking about?" the adoptive Tendo snapped following Akane.

"Who else died in that fight?" Akane snapped.

Natsume stopped cold and blinked, glancing around the house with a sudden realization.

And the door slammed shut in front of them, locking.

"I should have left when the plates exploded," Akane said quietly.

* * *

Kurz was on the branch of a tree thick with leaves near the top of one of the hills in the region and staring out across the visible miles of trees and hills. Scanning from one direction to another, he didn't see much in the way of activity.

There were some hunters about three kilometers away, doing more drinking than hunting from what Kurz could see through the scope.

"Could also be bandits," he noted to himself, bringing down his scope.

The long thin wisp of smoke they were letting twist into the sky said that was unlikely unless they were also idiots. Then again, banditry didn't require a high degree of intelligence.

There was no sign yet of any sort of directed pursuit coming there way. Not that he necessarily would see it.

He dropped down from the tree and pocketed his scope before turning toward Shichimu.

"We'll head that way once night falls again," he said, pointing vaguely east and south.

"What's that way?" she asked.

"Turkey," Kurz said. "I've got some friends and personal contacts out there that'll be able to help us."

And it required going through some of the more unsettled parts of Europe rather than taking the more obvious routes west to France or north to West Germany. There were bandits and the highly territorial roving patrols of soldiers who'd likely see a clairvoyant as a rather large prize themselves.

However, none of these people were actively looking for them. And it wasn't like he hadn't brought a civie through regions like this before.

"Want to play 'I spy'?" the girl asked.

"I somehow don't think that would be fair," Kurz noted, wondering how he'd be expected to spy something that she self-hallucinated. "But how about twenty questions instead?"

* * *

"So why are you still here?" Deimosu asked Skuld as he worked through a simple routine with Yonjuu and Nimu.

"My sister just got married," the Goddess said in the process of her tinkering. "And they're being really...umm...really..."

She flushed brightly somewhere between anger and embarrassment.

"Are you planning to stay here all night?" Naiki asked.

"Kei...my brother-in-law's sister is letting me stay over for a while," she explained.

"And why aren't you there instead of playing keep away with Yaku's computer?" Deimosu asked.

Yaku was standing at Skuld's side staring at her computer plaintively and glancing back toward the various Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

"I'm fixing it," Skuld corrected. "It's gotten a bit loose and and dirty and everything. You'd almost think it hasn't been maintained for a couple of thousand years."

"It hasn't been," Yonjuu noted.

"Eh?" Skuld asked. "Where'd you get it?"

"In the Labyrinth," Yaku said. "Somebody named Daedulus owned it."

Skuld froze and her hands started to shake such that she very carefully pulled them away from the computer and stared at in a very clear expression of awe.

Music filled the air around her and a golden light came down from the heavens above to lance upon the computer.

At least that was what Skuld saw.

Naiki arched an eyebrow and walked over to poke the engineer.

"I think you broke her, kid," Naiki said.

"Eeeee!" Skuld shrieked finally. "I have Weyland's hammer and a papyrus inscribed by Imohotep, if some jerk hasn't stolen it. I even have a bit of Einstein's hair!"

"Ewwww," Yaku and Naiki said in unison.

"Can I have it?" Skuld asked hopefully.

Yaku grabbed the computer and hugged it to her.

"Mine," she said.

"I can give you a better one," Skuld offered quickly.

"Mine," the girl said.

"But...Daedulus," she said despairingly.

The door to the warehouse opened letting Eija and Kaname come in with Sousuke.

"Sorry I'm out so late," Eija said. "We...uh..."

"We lost track of time," Kaname said.

"That must have been an interesting haircut," Deimosu noted suspiciously as Yaku hid behind him with her computer and stuck her tongue out at Skuld.

"At least let me finish fixing it," Skuld pleaded.

"I'm surprised you got Eija to get one, usually she has some sort of sacrificial victim flashback when she gets in the chair and the scissors come out," Naiki noted.

"Ahh, yes, uh..." Eija said nervously, setting aside the mirror she had borrowed for her sketching.

"There was some...difficulty," Sousuke noted. "Kaname performed the haircut."

"Oh, that explains the gothy Hime-cut," Naiki said.

"The what?" Eija asked. _Kaname!_

_Oh God! I didn't realize, I'm sorry it didn't even..._

"You're carrying around a giant mirror and you didn't notice?" Deimosu asked.

Eija handed her sketchbook over to Sousuke and turned to look more carefully into the mirror she'd just set down and saw that, yes, she had a Hime-cut and...

"Ahhh," she protested loudly.

"I'm sorry," Kaname said outloud. "I'm really sorry." _Really, I didn't mean to..._

"I...like it..." Eija said as if it was the most horrid realization ever. "I'm a goth! I really am a goth."

"Sorry," Kaname said.

"What is a goth?" Sousuke asked.

"Goth's are poseurs that dye their hair black and whine and complain about having normal lives," Eija said. "And draw a lot of death and doom stuff, or write bad poetry."

Sousuke, was flipping through Eija's sketchbook. Martial arts kata sketches. Pictures of her brother, sister and mother. Landscape, landscape. His face. Kitten ("don't show Mom"). Kaname's face. Sketch of a runic circle with notes on proper place ment of circles. Fancy rose. Him and Kaname, Kaname looking frustrated and pinching bridge of her nose with hearts fluttering around it. More landscapes. Landscape with tactical assessment. Swords, daggers, staves. More of him and Kaname.

And tonight's sketch.

Which showed her in the process of getting a Hime-cut while sketching.

"I'm not sure any of that applies to you," Sousuke noted. "You're not a fake, you don't dye your hair. You rarely whine and your sketchbook has nothing to do with death and doom."

"Yeah," Kaname said. "You're about the opposite of goth...personality wise."

_Personality wise?_

_Well, you're the real thing so you're what the goths TRY to look like and well..._

Eija took a deep breath and sighed, getting a hold of herself.

"I apologize for the outburst," she said. "At least Okaasan was not here to see that."

"Actually..."

Everyone looked to see Ranma leaning in the doorframe with a smile.

Kaname and Eija both flushed brightly in embarrassment.

"Heh," Naiki said. "At least I'm not the one embarrassing myself this time."

Ranma straightened and walked into the room.

"Well, it's getting late," she said. "Time for visitors and stalkers to get off to where-ever it is they sleep at night."

"Wait, stalkers..." Naiki asked turning nervous.

"But I want to watch her sleep," Lusca called out, sticking her head out from behind some of the debris that had been piled into the shrinking unused portion of the warehouse.

"How did she get there without me knowing it?" Yonjuu asked, looking over toward the girl. "How did your mother know she was there?"

"How long has she been there?" Naiki asked.

* * *

"Okay," Akane said, setting Hel down and looking at the door. "Let's see if we can get out of here."

"There should be a way out through the dojo," Natsume said, trying to clear her head of what she was now recognizing as something subtly influencing her.

However, it did seem odd that Akane would mention trying to get out of the house. Wasn't like either of them had an issue with making their own exits. Perhaps she wanted to keep the building intact for after it was exorcised.

"It's...not Kurumi?" Hel asked confused.

"No," Natsume said, holding her. "It's Hecate."

Almost immediately, letters and words started appearing scratched into the walls around them. It was threats in ancient Greek mostly, which only Hel could read, but Akane recognized a handful of circles shaping up on either side.

Natsume did as well and left the entryway ahead of Akane. The naval officer held in front of her sister and the Demoness, raising a simple battle aura as the air between the two filled with power and scorched either side of the wall.

"Is that all?" Natsume asked after a couple of seconds.

"I don't think that's the end of it," Akane said before turning back toward Hel. "You said you could see her?"

"Sometimes, when she lets me," Hel said.

"Is there anything you can do?" Akane asked

"She is a child," Natsume protested.

Hel did not dispute the assertion, which told Natsume how scared she was.

"Let's head to the dojo and see if she's locked that up yet," Akane said.

Natsume nodded before taking up the little Demon in her arms and leading them to the back of the building. Akane looked over Natsume and Hel again, this time paying attention to their auras. Both auras looked as tired as they did physically.

She'd experienced a few hauntings, been dead once for something like a minute, but she was hardly an expert on ghosts. Though it was clear that they used the power of people and things to accomplish their tasks, having almost none of their own to use.

The paper doors ahead of them slammed shut and Akane moved around Natsume to try them and found them holding fast. Nor did it seem like they'd be as easily broken as normal. They held fine when she shook it a little and then thumped it.

_I won't be letting them escape,_ an angry but controlled voice said from behind Hel.

The girl spun around and catch a fleeting sight of Hecate's bloody, mutilated form before it faded away.

Natsume turned to look herself when the girl shrieked, but of course could see nothing.

"Okay," Akane said, spinning her finger around and looking toward Natsume. "I guess this is a strong ghost."

Natsume frowned at the little gesture and suddenly realized why Akane wasn't destroying pieces of the structure just yet.

Respect for a sibling's property, or even her own, usually went right out the window when Akane thought there was some sort of danger in the area.

Natsume couldn't blame her, she was the same way.

"I'll check the windows," the older martial artist said, setting Hel down next to Akane.

The Demoness grabbed onto her side and didn't let go. Partially because she'd dropped her crutch, but obviously afraid as well.

"I've got it," Akane said.

The woman left from the paper doors across the center living area toward some of the windows, only to find them equally resilient. The glass refusing to shatter. Crossing to the other side of the room came with the same result as more threats were scratched into the walls around them and they were being progressively sealed off from leaving the room.

Hel was actively clutching at Natsume now as she watched the various words and symbols appearing around them, trapping them further inside.

Impris...

Wait a minute.

She was only twelve in this incarnation and only really had a bit of control over her Realm yet, not enough to really imprison a ghost, but she was still Hel.

The world's most perfect warden.

Or at least she would be.

Concentrating herself, she put her power to work, hiding a flaw in Hecate's design from the creator as she made stand out glaringly to anybody else.

"Are you almost done, Akane?" Natsume asked, somewhat worried by the sudden way that Hel had seemed to calm down.

"I think so," Akane said, backing toward the center of the room with her sister and Hel. "The thing is busy..."

The two martial artists stared about at the aura of stolen energies in the room and quietly shook their heads as they considered the, for them, glaringly obvious lack of attention in a particular direction.

Then again, Natsume noted, it was the ghost of someone that had looked down on humans.

"Sorry about the house," Akane noted as she entered a yamasenken stance.

"Stand between us, Hel," Natsume said, calling her own chi in.

_It is a waste of..._

And both martial artists unleashed at once, straight upwards, vacuum blades and raw chi erupting upward through the roof and blowing a wide hole in the house over the room, through which Natsume, picking up Hel, and then Akane leaped as easily as walking across the street.

And, as they were leaving, Hel reached out again with her own Realm.

She couldn't form a prison herself, but she could correct a flaw in one. And ghosts didn't need physical barriers to be trapped.

Akane landed lightly on the ground beside Natsume and glanced back at the house as loud sounds of crashing and banging flailed about inside the building behind them.

"Spent all that effort on the doors and walls and windows..." Akane said, tsking.

"She's going to destroy the family shrine," Natsume said angrily, starting to head back in.

"Don't open the door!" Hel shouted. "I...closed it behind us."

"Really," Natsume said, looking toward her. "That was a good job."

"I am Demoness of Prisons," she said proudly.

"And how long will it last?" Akane asked.

"Until she runs out of the power she drew from us," Hel said weakly. "And it falls apart."

The three looked toward the loud cacophony of destruction with a new eye.

"Let's get to that shrine," Akane suggested.

* * *

"Well," Urd asked.

"The spirit was gone before I arrived at the nearest crossroads with Eija and met the human death seers there," Persephone said. "She's fled into the spirit world somewhere."

"Damn," Urd said. "Why can't she just go on to her next life like a good dead person."

The elder Norn paused as she noticed the tension.

"I apologize," she said quietly.

"I understand," Persephone said.

"Shouldn't that Hel girl have known how to deal with...ghosts?" Skuld asked nervously. "Doesn't Nifelheim teach its death seers?"

"They don't have all that many," Persephone noted. "Or those with the healing touch. Balor killed most of them for their essences. Hel is one of the strongest left."

"What?" Skuld asked.

"Its how he enchanted his eye," Urd explained. "Stealing the lives and essences of hundreds of Demons with powers over life or death. That's why they use mostly medical technology rather than healing spells."

"Thank whatever powers there are that Hild at least crippled that weapon," Persephone said with a sigh. "I knew there had to be a reason your father spent time with your mother. As it stands, Eija and I are planning to make the occasional trip there to tutor her. Eija was trained by humans, who deal more often with the newly dead than we do, and I was trained by my husband, so she'll get some good instruction."

"Where is your husband?" Urd asked, though the question was not answered.

Giggling in the back of the Temple carried forward to where Skuld and Urd sat with Persephone who went about serving out the breakfast for the day as Urd and Skuld glanced back toward what was now Belldandy and Keiichi's room before looking toward each other.

"This is your fault you know," Skuld said harshly.

"You say that like you expect me to be upset," Urd said with a smirk.

"How can you not be?" Skuld asked. "They're, they're...how could that be good."

There was a playful shriek from the back of the temple's living area followed again by giggling from the two newlyweds.

"Trust me it is," the elder sister said wisely.

"Depends on who it is with," Persephone noted dryly.

"You can't possibly make me think that...that...that would ever be good," Skuld protested, a teenaged blush working over her face.

"I think I can do that in one word," Urd noted.

"Oh really?" Skuld said. "I'd bet you that you're wrong."

"I'm willing to take that bet," Urd said.

"Fine, no alcohol for...a month then!" Skuld declared.

"And if I'm right?" her sister asked.

"I'd back out now if I were you," Persephone noted, though neither were sure who the elder Goddess was talking to.

"If you're right," Skuld said. "I'll dye my hair bubblegum pink for...a year!"

"All right," Urd said leaning on her hand and speaking in sultry tones. "Last chance."

"Ha!" Skuld snapped, standing up. "Good luck getting me to back down now. Say your word."

"Sentaro."

* * *

Sanya, her class and the teacher looked as Skuld came into the room.

"Miss Wodensdottir," the teacher said walking over. "I enjoy Rosario as much as anybody, but perhaps now is not the time to cosplay."

"I lost a bet," Skuld said mournfully.

* * *

"...and then she shouted 'Not fair' and disappeared into the bathroom to 'get ready for work'," Urd told Chihiro with a smirk.

"Little Skuld has a boyfriend?" the human woman said. "Who knew? Other than you that is."

"A lot of people," Urd said. "Though I do wonder why she already had pink hair dye."

"Couldn't she just magic her hair a different color?" Megumi asked. "Being a Goddess and all?"

Urd snorted.

"Not likely, even if Asgard was up and running she'd be more likely to turn her vision pink first," Urd said.

"Her vision? What?" Megumi said.

"Oh well," Urd said. "It's probably ammo for her..."

There was a knock on the door of the office and Chihiro walked to door to open it up to find Otaki there with a package in his hands.

"There's a delivery for Urd here," he said, sounding confused.

"For Urd?" Chihiro repeated. "What the heck would it be sent here for?"

"I don't know, it was by special delivery service though," he noted.

"It could be from Psyche," Urd said, walking over. "Though why they wouldn't just call me."

She took the package and frowned as she started to open it up.

The resulting rainbow explosion splattered all over Urd, Chihiro, Otaki, the office and Megumi as well.

"You were just saying something about her using pink dye for ammo?" Chihiro asked.

"Can you keep us out of the sisterly squabbles?" Megumi pleaded.

"Oh, she is getting...oh that girl," Urd fumed.

"Sorry we're late," Keiichi's voice called out from further in Whirlwind's production floor. "We were...uhh...what?"

He pointed around to the various brilliantly colored people in the room.

"You were otherwise occupied, yes," Chihiro said, tapping her fingers. "I've got to go change now. Coming with me Megumi?"

"Oh dear," Belldandy said. "Didn't Skuld remember what the plan for the day was?"

* * *

"The most extreme measure you can take," Kali commented. "Cut the contact before its complete and then wipe it."

"Total formatting basically, and if it's already a complete circuit?" Tessa asked.

"It'll just reconnect while the..." the Goddess of Destruction was saying.

Her intercom buzzed and Tessa nodded apologetically toward the Goddess and answered the call.

"Yes?" she asked.

Outside, the receptionist looked down through the group of civilians that had been brought to the base with a bit of caution.

"The engineering team you were looking for is here," she said.

"All right," Tessa's voice came over the intercom. "Let them in as soon as I'm finished with Kali."

"Yes, Ma'am," the receptionist said. "She'll see you momentarily."

"You know," Chihiro said. "Right now, I'm sitting in the office of a leader of a secret mercenary organization waiting for a sixteen year old sub-captain to finish a meeting with a Hindu Death Goddess. I'm...I have no idea where because I came through a TV and haven't yet been allowed outside. My best employee's girlfriend and her sisters are Norse Goddesses. And we're about to discuss going full scale weapons...I repeat weapons...production and ironing out of flaws on what was just a idle whim of a project because Earth is going to be invaded by bad guys. And before I forget, previously mentioned girlfriend Goddess is vouching for me to try to become functionally immortal..."

"And our hair is five different colors," Megumi noted.

"That's comparatively normal," the older woman noted.

Kali walked out of the room looking dignified until she saw Urd and then burst out laughing as she walked out.

"Skuld..." Urd grumbled angrily.

"Can we try to stay focused please?" Keiichi asked hopefully.

* * *

Naiiki looked over toward Lusca nervously. The other Demoness was staring at her still pretty much non-stop, though after that first day, she hadn't done anything too creepy.

Well, there was still the constant staring and dreamy smile, but other than that there wasn't much.

"I saw wonderful movie last night, Naiki," she said suddenly.

"Okay," Naiki said. "That's nice."

"Want to know what it was about?" the little Kraken asked.

"Are you going to tell me anyone?" Naiki asked.

"Mmm. Hmm!" Lusca said with a sigh.

"Then no," Naiki said.

Lusca laughed at that, well giggled really.

"Oh, so witty!" she said. "Well, it was the tragic story of a new life created through a miracle of technology and set to destruction after being so clearly taken away from what must have been very saddened parents."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like my sort of them," Naiki said. "I like action not dramas."

"Oh it was an action movie," Lusca said.

"About a tragically stolen child?" the Demoness of Torrent asked in disbelief. "What was the title?"

"Sharktopus!" the pettanko said brightly, her braids almost quivering with excitement and glee.

Naiki dropped her head to her desk and groaned.

Lusca was tempted to say something else but stopped herself.

* * *

"Why are you following around my daughter?" Naiki's mother had asked her seriously after the other visitors had left for the night.

"Because...because she's perfect!" Lusca said.

"Okay, something a mother would like hearing about her girl," Ranma said. "But what makes you think that?"

"Because she's the first person to cast one of my spells since...since before the guy in Jerusalem!" Lusca called out. "I mean, I was stuck in that tiny seal since the 80s! And she let me out."

"So, you've been stuck for twenty years?" Ranma said. "I guess that would leave you a little loopy..."

"Not the 1980s!" Lusca noted with a laugh. "That would be silly."

Ranma hesitated a moment and thought carefully about that statement and just as carefully set the thought aside for a moment.

"Okay," she said. "Anyway, I know Mara talked to you, what did she say?"

"No touching," Lusca said, ticking off a finger. "No mind control. No potions. No hostages...oh! I'm sorry, I let some thugs kidnap me so she'd rescue me...so I broke that one."

"That's not what Mara meant by hostages," Ranma noted with a sigh.

"Ehh, what else could she mean?" Lusca asked.

"Nevermind," the redhead said.

"Anyway, I'll endeavor not to be taken hostage anymore!" Lusca said.

"That's always a good thing," Ranma noted. "And don't show up here unannounced anymore. I like to know what guests I'm responsible for. And don't press too hard, you'll just annoy her."

"But how will I pass the tests that way?" Lusca wondered.

"Say what now?" Ranma asked as the girl started to open her mouth. "Nevermind, I probably don't want to hear that. Anyway, watch yourself and I won't have to hurt you."

"Mara said you'd hurt me," Lusca said. "That's funny."

Ranma looked down at the girl and arched an eyebrow.

* * *

"By the way, Naiki," Lusca said. "Your mother is scary."

"Did you try to call her bluff on something?" Naiki asked.

* * *

"Oh don't worry," Kyoko said. "It looks great on you."

"Yeah," Kaname said. "Don't let anybody else get you down. It could be a lot worse."

_And have I mentioned that I apologize for doing it without realizing it?_

_Yes, Kaname. I'm fine._

"Kaname is definitely right," Kyoko said nodding.

Eija blinked and pointed at the students that bent away from their path as they walked through the hall.

"There can be worse than that?" Eija asked.

"Sousuke, I heard there was some sort of security issue Hayashimizu was asking you to deal with," Kyoko asked.

"Yes, he wants me to interview students and see if anyone may have leaked information of our playbook to another school," he said.

A number of doors closed eliciting a roll of the eyes from Kaname.

"Oh yeah," Kaname said. "I'm supposed to help with that too. Make sure you do everything correctly."

And that came with the sound of running feet and more slamming doors.

Kyoko nodded and continued walking through the suddenly empty hallway.

Shinji stared in near shock at the sheer emptiness of the hallway around them.

"Is something wrong?" Sousuke asked, looking toward Shinji.

"Wait a minute!" Kaname said. "Why'd most of them run when I said something?"

_I don't know whether to feel relieved or insulted,_ Eija noted.

* * *

Kurz and Shichimu looked as if they'd spent the last week or more in the wilderness, mostly because they had. Dodging bandits and the military patrols of isolationist tin-pot Eastern European nations in the shadow of the Soviet Union hadn't been easy, but at least they hadn't had any sign that Kodachi or her group had figured out which way they had gone.

Now Kurz and Shichimu were in a small alcove between two buildings and ducked out of sight with a stolen cell phone with Kurz hoping that certain people hadn't had cause to drop their cell phones yet.

"Do you think I'll be able to hear a movie when we get whereever you're taking me" Shichimu asked.

"Oh don't worry," Kurz said. "I'll make sure you hear them all."

Meanwhile he was waiting for an answer.

* * *

Shampoo paused as she heard the ringing sound of a cell phone from the kitchen.

"It is my understanding that Ranma does not allow cell phones to her children," Shampoo noted. "Due to how they can be traced. I believe she only keeps one for herself for her public business."

Nimu, arm locked against her back, was able to speak far less casually.

"Mithril, burner phone," she said.

"Ahhh," the Amazon noted, letting Nimu go such that the young woman spun out in a tumble. "You had better answer then."

Burner phones were not unheard of to the Amazon, some of the younger villagers made use of them in keeping an eye on the Chinese soldiers that wandered near the valley.

Nimu stood up, staring across at Shampoo cautiously as she moved to the kitchen and snapped up her cell phone.

"Ichi," she said, answering the phone. "Sergeant Weber, how do you have this phone's number? I only received it after we ar...I'll pass the word on right now."

Nimu hung up and then, as she had been instructed to do before, snapped the cell phone in half before removing the card and destroying that as well.

"I'm assuming something is wrong," Shampoo noted.

"He was using an unsecure phone," Nimu said as she moved toward the land line for the warehouse and dialing up a number.

* * *

Shichimu blinked and laughed in a bit of quiet delight as she watched a butterfly flutter into the little alcove holding her and Kurz hidden from the goings on in the surrounding city.

"And that's going to be our message," Kurz said as the butterfly flittered over to him and settled down into his hand.

"A message?" Shichimu asked, blinking and then the butterfly started to unfold into a small piece of paper.

"Okay," Kurz said. "They want us to find a mirror, black cloth or a...television?"

"And what do we do then?" Shichimu asked.

"I guess we wait," he said in answer.

They slipped out into the street, Kurz leading as he looked about and tried to avoid attracting too much attention from people that would see them as more than a little out of the ordinary. He spotted a small hotel for business travelers and with little difficulty they slipped into one of the empty rooms past an ancient lock.

The room had a TV stand, though the TV itself was broken. However, the black cloth of the curtains and the mirror in the bathroom were still present.

"What are we wai..." Shichimu started to ask quietly.

Which was when a darkskinned Hindu woman with blue facial marks stepped out of the curtains which rustled briefly. Shichimu stepped back away from the woman, who seemed terrifying to her for some reason. And then another woman appeared in the door of the bathroom, though this one was much more pleasant and appealing.

Kurz started to raise his gun until he noted the blue marks on their faces.

"Goddesses?" he asked.

"Yes," Kali said. "Belldandy, can you take the girl. Think she's feeling my presence."

"Of course," Belldandy said. "Right this way, we'll take you somewhere safe."

"What about..." Shichimu pointed toward Kurz.

"You'll see him on the other side," Kali said cryptically with a smile.

"Uhh..." the girl said hesitantly.

"Don't fear," Belldandy said softly. "Kali is fond of a particular sort of humor."

The Norn gave Kali a reproachful look and stepped into the bathroom with Shichimu and into the mirror.

"Captain Testarossa implied there was another of you?" Kali said after Belldandy left.

"He didn't make it this far," Kurz said. "So, I'm going to be taken to the other side by the Hindu Goddess of Death?"

"Creative Destruction is my official domain," Kali said. "Let's go."

She offered her hand to him and reached into the black cloth.

* * *

Shichimu gasped in shock and surprise as they came out of the mirror into a wide exercise room, a tingle working over her body as they arrived.

A small group of people sat there, clearly waiting, including a girl that didn't look much older than Shichimu did, though she was a bit shorter and had a perfect slim figure with exotic lavender hair and green marks on her face. She stood with two older men who were clearly deferring to her presence.

A moment later, Kali and Kurz came out of a black cloth draped over a set of bars nearby.

"Welcome to Meridia," the teenager said with a smile. "You're safe here and in a little bit, you'll be safe..."

The words started to fade out as the gurgling sound of another started to filter in over all the sound around her.

_Eventually, child, you are going to be somewhere you feel is safe and will take you forever from my reach and then you will look back to me. And you will know, you belong to me._

Shichimu felt a sudden pressure in the back of her mind and reached up to clutch her head and double over with a gasp.

_...you will look back to me._

She vaguely felt the people coming around her as the remembered words pushed harder through her mind.

_...look back to me._

Sight started fade out and she closed her eyes to concentrate on it as a vague sense of being carried came to her and the sound of space being cleared around as equipment was thrown left and right.

_...look back..._

She shook her head as that feeling started to vanish.

_...look..._

And then there was the silent image of her mother sitting patiently in the cabin of a private jet and waiting.

_Ahh, there you are. I've been waiting..._

The first thing any of her daughters picked up from her when she started to absorb them was a survival instinct that started something of a struggle. It made little sense to Kodachi since the fight was both futile and pointless. After all, they were insured everlasting survival once they were fully a part of her.

This connection started no differently.

In brief moment, every one of Kodachi's bodies across the globe found their field of vision going completely dark.

* * *

Onlookers in France were shocked as a woman failed to stop as the crosswalk was opened to autmobiles. She simply walked forward several paces, stopping in concern and annoyance before being slammed into by a delivery truck.

* * *

Kodachi grimaced as she tried to filter through all the sounds and sensations coming in until her vision returned and all the while keeping her mental hold on the girl that had thought to escape.

As vision came back to her, she focused one of her brains on the task of bringing the new girl into her as another sat on hand, waiting to focus her telepathic might through the girl into attacking these fools that would stand in her way.

They were fools indeed if they thought she was limited to using just one body's powers at a time.

* * *

Shichimu screamed out as the thick, chittering insanity of her mother started to worm its way into the edges of her mind and soul.

A jagged set of images came of the life and end of one of her sisters. Mind dying in screaming fear and insanity to be sucked within the monster and soul left chained to this life until her body was destroyed.

Just a source of power for their mother.

More such scenes flooded into her, mostly her sisters but more recently others that had come upon Kodachi.

Dozens of trapped, lost souls screaming out for release and urging Shichimu to do something.

* * *

"Hold her down!" Kali shouted as she, Urd and Belldandy were swiftly drawing out a several concentric circles joined by collections of triangles. "Don't let her disturb anything or this won't work!"

Shichimu screamed out as if something were stabbing a white hot poker into her palm and pushing it up her arm inch by creeping and burning inch.

* * *

Vision came back and one of Kodachi's bodies, paused in the act of getting ready to dive into a pool for a swim, smirked and stepped forward to return to her dive.

The employees around her stared in shock as their mistress stopped feeding the violent sharks she was so fond of and did a perfect swan dive into the middle of the feeding frenzy.

* * *

Pain distant and confused snapped through a segment of Kodachi's mind and she stood up to head for the hallway and to see just what was happening at the swimming pool.

The door opened with a huge rush of air.

"Someone turn down the fan, now!" she ordered as she walked out into the hallway feeling rather oddly unbalanced.

* * *

Kodachi stared out herself in the mirror, blinking and looking about to see if she could figure out the source of the pain she had just felt when she'd gone to apply the make up to this body's inappropriately shaded neck.

Finding no blood, she reasoned that she was simply picking up an echo from another body and pulled the makeup pad back up to her neck to smear the coloring across her skin.

The patrons at a restaurant had no explanation for why she took a steak knife cut her own throat from ear to ear, while twisting the knife in uneven directions.

* * *

Kodachi felt herself choking on the flavorless wine she had just drank, and tried to stand up and choke out the fluid and clear her lungs, screaming out to the other restaurant patrons to help her. But no sound came out and it felt as if only more water flowed into her with each furious shout.

And then Kodachi was floating face down in the swimming pool.

* * *

Kodachi pulled at the uncomfortable sensation around her mouth and reached out to turn on a light.

Her fellow researchers watched in horror as the nerve gas they were experimenting with flooded the chamber.

* * *

Kodachi picked up a piece of candy and stuffed it into her mouth, trying to chew and force it down her throat, wondering why it was giving her so much trouble even as it irritably started choking at her.

Confused, Kodachi had no idea what was happening as she choked on the thick make-up application pad she'd just mistaken for a cake.

* * *

"Mistress what are you doing?" someone shouted, and didn't come from the right direction somehow. When she first turned to look, no one was where she first thought the sound had come from.

"I'm feeding the sharks, what does it look..." she paused in confusion at the line of sharp pains and sudden constricting sensations around her arm.

"You just grabbed a handful of the snakes!" the same assistant shouted, though his mouth wasn't moving.

Pain and heart palpitations followed.

* * *

"Oh, clever girl," Kodachi said. "Clever, clever girl. But I'm on to you now."

She pushed into her daughter's mind more forcefully, setting aside the sudden shriek that came with it as inevitable.

"If I simply don't move, you can't..." Kodachi paused. "Will someone turn off that fan!"

And then the New York subway roared through the track and tore her to pieces.

* * *

Another Kodachi frowned as she saw the subway train barreling down on her with a smirk.

"I think I've already been hit by this one," she said. "You're going to have to choose another illu..."

* * *

"Oh, right," Kodachi noted. "Japan's subway. So, some of these images aren't shifted then."

She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the sound of what was going on around.

_Leave me alone!_

_Why should I ever do that,_ Kodachi wondered idly. _And do not make such a fuss, all this so called pain is imagined, nothing is wrong with you._

She said so in a conversational tone as a facet of her mind pushed deeper in and found the memory of the first and only movie that Shichimu had actually ever heard.

"Go out to hear a movie," Kodachi said taking a few steps forward. "How absolutely rid..."

And she heard and felt the crashing of glass as she walked through a plate glass window as shards tore into her all over her body, though she could see neither the glass nor the cuts.

"Bother..." she muttered before falling forward and that body died.

* * *

_You are going to make it difficult to keep your body unharmed once this finishes,_ Kodachi said as if correcting an erring child. _Every time you kill one of my bodies, you reduce the abilities I can use through you when the time comes._

_I don...don,...don't want you to have my body!_ Shichimu shrieked as she writhed in her mind with each new contact her biological mother slipped out.

_We don't want to be you,_ several fragments of Kodachi's mind spoke out, causing her to frown in confusion.

Echoes, remains. Undigested waste.

_Irritating,_ she noted. _You will not..._

And then something slammed down, slicing through her mind and soul and cutting her off from Shichimu entirely.

_What! Who dares this?_

She could still feel echoes of her fragmented self crawling through Shichimu's mind. This had been tried before, with one of those new psychics. As soon as the parts of her already inside finished pulling the girl's mind into the whole, the wall would crack and Kodachi could start punishing those with the temerity to stand in front of her.

And then there was nothing from that fragment of herself.

It was just...gone.

* * *

Kurz looked down at Shichimu as her struggles ceased and the formerly flailing hand remained still a few seconds before falling to the ground. The girl stared upward blankly her eyes blinking only occasionally.

"What happened? Is it over?" Kurz asked as he held the girl. "Shichimu, are you okay."

Kali stood up, taking her hand away from the girl's forehead and exchanged sad glances with both Tessa and the other Goddesses.

The girl lay there breathing and simply staring and blinking, head turning about as if taking everything around her in for the first time.

"What's wrong with her," Kurz asked.

"To keep her separate and independent," Kali said. "We had to cut off her from contact and erase every trace of the viral mind."

"Yeah," Kurz said. "So what does that mean?"

"It means they had to wipe her mind, Sergeant Weber," Tessa said. "She'll have to start from new now."

"What?" he asked, holding the girl. "What do you mean. Hey, Shichimu, you wanted to hear a movie, remember?"

"From now on," Tessa said looking toward Kali. "Any operation against Kodachi needs to include a God, Demon or Ainur able to look for suggestions or mental tampering. Is that doable."

"It will be if it isn't," Belldandy said quietly, kneeling down beside Kurz and the girl to lay a comforting hand on his shoulder.

* * *

Kodachi glared as she waited in the hallway and started walking again, still feeling unbalanced, wobbly and as if a lot of air was being pushed into her.

"Will someone please turn off that..." Kodachi started to shout as the world around her shifted its view and she found herself in open air.

Glancing up she could just barely see her private plane in the distance.

"Oh...of course," she said in an annoyed tone as the ground came up to meet her. "Really, just one physical power, that is all I would..."


	39. Physical Education

"And Kodachi Kuno," O'Neil said.

He clicked a button to show a dark haired woman walking determinedly through a plate glass window on the video and dying afterward.

"And Kodachi Kuno," he repeated, moving to another video. "And Kodachi Kuno. Ooo, gotta hurt! And, Kodachi Kuno..."

Daniel and Carter winced at the way he repeated the name so enthusiastically, remembering a similar instance some years previous.

* * *

One of two women dropped as a bullet was put into her back and the other ducked behind cover.

"Stop right there!" O'Neil called out, "put the artifact down and..."

He stopped as the individual poked her head out of cover to reveal the face of Dr. Janet Frasier facing him with a sadistic grin.

"Dr. Frasier?" he called out as the other Socrates Group members came up beside him.

"And Kodachi Kuno," the woman said as she clicked a device and a series of explosions cut her off from the reach of the others. "And Kodachi Kuno! And. Kodachi. Kuno. OHH HOHOHOHOHOHOOHOHOHO!"

She walked off into the darkness then as they had tried to get past the debris she'd erected in their way.

* * *

"I sincerely doubt this is an accident," Carter noted. "We have reports on at least eleven confirmed deaths by individuals that were claiming to be Kodachi Kuno. All within an eight minute period and mostly self-inflicted directly or otherwise. In at least one case, she killed herself and about thirty or forty of her researchers in one facility due to a nerve gas leak."

"I want to meet whoever did this," O'Neil said shaking his head. "This is my kind of guy."

"This did result in some responses however," Hammond said.

"Response what do you mean?" Carter asked.

Hammond stepped forward to take the remote from O'Neil and called up a new set of images.

"We have reports of attacks on known psychic families or facilities all over the world," the General said,. "Psyche's sanctuaries have been attacked unsuccessfully in three cities, but their Rio facility has gone dark. Warsaw and NATO programs have also been attacked."

"Ah, hell," Jack said. "She's..."

"Recruiting," Teal'c noted.

"Spreading might be a better term," Jackson said darkly.

"It gets worse," Hammond said, pulling up a new image. "Two of our off-world sites were attacked, we got footage from one of them."

At first glance it appeared to be any other Kodachi, but the team quickly recognized her as she turned toward the camera and then walked into an open gateway ahead of her mercenaries.

"Janet," Daniel said. "There are any of a number of psychic populations that she could assault..."

"So, we have, potentially, three invasions to be concerned with," Carter said.

"Teyla Emmagan from the Atlantis team is supposed to be visiting Mithril about this Ainur thing," Hammond said. "She has a homing beacon, right?"

"Right, sir," Carter said.

"It's unfortunate we didn't build the damn things until after Janet..." O'Neil waved his hands.

"Go ahead and pay a visit to our mercenary white knights, see what they have to say about this," Hammond said. "Be polite, but remember, they have a leak."

"All right, sir," O'Neil said. "I've been wondering about this Captain Teletha Testarossa anyway."

"Indeed," Teal'C agreed, "the events that her name and unit appear next to are most impressive. I am very interested in meeting such a warrior."

"I have to admit to curiosity there myself," Carter said. "The main reason we know that Mithril has a link is because Gauron clearly knew her background and what she looks like and we...well, don't. But the Gods and Demons we've talked to have been speaking highly of her too now..."

"One does wonder what sort of person produces that level of loyalty in others," Daniel agreed.

"I'll bet she's some sort of Amazon bad ass," O'Neil said.

* * *

"Excuse me, Colonel O'Neil," Tessa said politely and mildly. "We were not informed that you were coming, or else I would have prepared a more friendly welcome."

She said this while smiling and gesturing for the various soldiers around her to put down their guns. Almost as if she were arranging a tea party. Her walk was graceful but tender, implying recent injury and she was wearing a cast on her arm as well.

The sixteen year old then moved forward, smiling politely and looking up into O'Neil's and Teal'C's faces as calm as could be.

The immediate thought O'Neil had was that the secretary had balls, though his eyes started to wander toward her rank insignia.

"That's okay, Miss..." he started to say.

"Captain!" an older voice called out, causing the girl to glance briefly over her shoulder, as if the visitors were no threat. "You should not be facing these intruders yourself."

"It's fine Commander Mardukas," Tessa said cheerfully and calmly with a mild bow. "There is no problem here. I'm sure Socrates Group is simply wishing to combine our resources."

"You are Captain Teletha Testarossa," O'Neil said pointing.

"That is correct, yes," Tessa said.

"You commanded the DaDanaan when it slew Poseidon," Teal'C asked.

"Also correct," the captain said.

"You're the woman who the Demons say purged a God-made virus from the Nifelheim psychic network?" Carter asked.

"I had help there," Tessa said, blushing slightly.

"And you're the one who developed Project Ainur," Daniel said.

"Yes, but that was more than half copying the Gods' and Demons' designs," Tessa noted.

They stared at her slack-jawed.

"Shall we move to the briefing room for coffee and lunch?" she asked, gesturing with her uninjured arm. "I believe your teammate shall be through in twenty or thirty minutes."

"Are you really...her?" O'Neil started to ask.

Tessa sighed as they started walking through the hall.

_Why is it that everyone who meets me the first time has trouble believing I'm the real commander?_

_You're sixteen and moe,_ Naiki returned. _You said you wanted to talk about something, what was it?_

_Not right now,_ Tessa returned. _When you get the chance tell your mother and Mara that Socrates Group somehow teleported into our base. I'd like to know how they did that and whether we can use it as a technique the way the Gods and Demons can. Granted, we'll try an exchange first..._

_All right,_ Naiki said. _Do you have any advice for..._

_No, I do not have advice for dealing with unwanted stalkers. I have, after all, so far failed to attract a particular wanted stalker._

_Sorry about that, Tessa,_ Naiki said. _But you're, you know, immortal now and have plenty of time to find someone else._

_I'm only ageless, Naiki,_ she said. _And I'm not particularly comforted by the thought I have an eternity to find true love. It implies it might just take that long._

"There was one thing I'd like to do," O'Neil said as Tessa quietly received Naiki's apologies.

"Oh?" Tessa said.

"Well, I'm assuming it's you," he noted. "But I'd like to shake the hand of whoever gave that freak Kuno such a thrashing."

Tessa's pleasant expression vanished into one of sadness and discomfort.

"Oh," she said. "I...don't suppose that'll be a problem...but it'll have to be short."

"That's fine," O'Neil said, suddenly cautious.

Tessa quietly gestured for them to continue following her and took them into what was clearly the infirmary where they found what appeared to be a seventeen year old girl with Ainur marks lying back in her bed and passively being fed by a nurse.

"That's her," Tessa said quietly. "I'll give you the file later, we had some security footage of the event."

"What's wrong with her?" Daniel asked.

"If your computer gets too heavily infected with viruses?" Tessa asked.

"You format the hard drive, reload all the backups," Carter said.

"Shichimu didn't have a backup," the Captain said quietly. "She's going to have to relearn to walk even. We think the Ainur network gives her language, but she doesn't have any of the concepts behind the words, so she might as well not know any words. I wondered about the way that Gods and Demons become children to make it easier, but apparently it requires some will on the part of the individual to be successful."

O'Neil frowned and looked toward Tessa.

"Do you mind if I go in?" he asked.

"Briefly," Tessa said.

O'Neil walked into the room and glanced toward the nurse cautiously before moving up in front of the girl.

True to Testarossa's description, the girl opened her mouth to talk, but quickly was overwhelmed by a blank, frustrated look and shook her head before glancing back to the nurse and reaching clumsily for the spoon.

"No, no," the nurse said before turning to O'Neil. "She spills it."

O'Neil grimaced and reached into a pocket to retrieve a small, colorful medal which he handed out toward her. She turned toward it, blinking and reached to take it.

"This is my Air Force Cross, I've got a couple of these," he told her in a friendly tone, ignoring her blank attitude as she examined the piece of metal without paying much attention. "It's a reward. It means you did good. Thought I'd give it to the person who did that to that woman."

She looked up at him and down at the medal again.

He gave her a crisp salute which she tried to imitate, blinking in frustration as she did.

"We'll make sure it's safe until she can understand what it means," the nurse said, taking the medal aside before the girl could gnaw on it. "Sergeant Weber will keep an eye on it."

"Good," O'Neil said firmly before waving at the girl with a smile and turning to leave the room.

"Let's go have that coffee," Tessa said silently.

* * *

Teyla was surprised to find the command team of Socrates Group having tea with Captain Testarossa as she finished her "ascension" and was escorted to meet with them.

"I still have to say that your image and behavior are very much unexpected," Teal'C noted.

"I know," Tessa said with a sigh. "Everybody tends to be surprised when they first meet me."

"The things your reputed for do tend to imply a certain..." Daniel tried to find a good term.

"Bad-assness," O'Neil said.

"Yes, I suppose so," she said.

"I am fairly certain that you'll find that Captain Testarossa seems to hide some definite iron," Teyla said walking in. "I think I just got a...look of what her mind is like under the appearances."

"I wouldn't call it appearances," Tessa said with a mild and polite frown. "I am not putting on a show here. Now, we have some things to discuss...let's start with why you're here so unannounced."

* * *

"Sheesh, what's the big deal here?" Kaname asked. "So we've got a new physical education teacher. It's about time we got one with Coach Kogure on leave after he got hospitalized earlier in the year."

"She's on Okaasan's list," Eija said, bringing Kaname up short.

"Okay, one group on that list is the Musk people that tried to kidnap us in Korea," Kaname said.

"Number 3," Naiki said.

"And the Chinese people teaching Nimu and Naiki," Yonjuu noted.

"Number 4," Deimosu said.

"Well, that was before, she upgraded Kodachi Kuno from 8 to 1," Eija said. "Now Musk are 4 and Amazons are 5."

"Most of the paranatural world has upgraded Kodachi to 1," Naiki noted.

"What used to be number 1?" Yonjuu asked in a nervous tone.

"Some woman named Hinako Ninomiya," Naiki said.

"Okay, so where's our new teacher then?" Kaname asked.

"Number 3 now," an older voice said, leaning into the conversation. "Now can we get back to where the rest of the class is?"

"Uhh, yes Miss Konjo," Sousuke said as he stood up straight and moved to salute her.

The other kids apologized quietly and carefully moved into the gymnasium as Konjo remained behind to watch them leave, tapping her feet before moving on to the gymnasium behind them and waiting for them to line up with the other students.

She was a tall, beautiful brunette woman with minute laugh lines and a bright and cheerful smile. The green marks on her face stood out to everybody as similar to those of other new teachers and students.

Or returning students in the case of Deimosu and Sousuke.

"All right," she said, walking up the lines. "I'm glad to see everyone here today on time! I'm Coach Konjo and I'm going to be physical instructor for the next little while at least. I'm hoping that we're all going to be able to have fun!"

A couple of people seemed to be chuckling under their breath at her declaration.

"I'd like to have fun with her," one of the chuckling boys noted.

"Now, I'm not really sure where everybody's physical capabilities are just yet," she said in an idle, seemingly airheaded manner. "So we're going to start with a few light exercises to find out where everybody stands."

She started to turn to some of her aids and then paused.

"Oh yes," she said. "First thing, there will be no easy favoritism in this class...and next..."

Ono D, one of several boys from the combined three classes, rose his hand curiously.

"Who would you treat as a favorite in this class?" he asked.

"Well, say, for argument's sake," she said keeping her cheerful appearance. "There were people involved in my ex-husband's family."

"Uhh, right," Ono said. "What's easy favoritism?"

"It's the sort of favoritism where I go easy on you," the coach said. "Instead of testing you to the extreme limits of your being so as best to bring out your ultimate potential."

Kaname stared as she felt a shiver go down her back for a moment and wondered why.

"Anymore questions on that?" she asked. "Good, now, the other thing. Anybody caught engaging in activity that will aggravate their own injuries will...be corrected. Anybody caught aggravating someone else's injuries will...regret it. Now, as I call your name, I will tell you whom of my assistants or myself to report."

She moved to the side and took a clipboard from one of several woman and men that were apparently the woman's assistant coaches.

"Kaname Chidori," she said. "Report to the first bleachers..."

She looked up over the clipboard with a bright and cheery smile that was intimidating as anything Eija had ever done.

"You'll be with my group," she said.

"All right," Kaname said, moving cautiously as she listened to more names being called out.

"Mizuki Inaba," Coach Konjo said. "Please move to the third bleachers and wait for Sonoda-sensei. Shinji Kazama, third bleachers. Lusca Kraken, first bleachers."

A few more names were called.

"Yonjuu Ni, first bleachers."

"Deimosu Satomi, first bleachers," she noted. "Eija Satomi and Naiki Satomi, first bleachers with potential med-evac condition."

"I'm not that badly hurt anymore," Naiki protested.

"I'm in the same bleachers as Naiki!" Lusca gushed. "Squeee!"

"Ummm, I change my mind," Naiki said. "I think I'm about to cough up a lung can I go to the nurse? Please?"

"Sousuke Sagara," she said, ignoring Naiki. "First bleachers, same med-evac thing."

"Understood," Sousuke said, moving that way.

"Kyoko Tokiwa," and she looked up still cheerful. "We have a physical therapy specialist coming from the nurse's office for you."

"Oh, thank you," Kyoko said.

"All right," Konjo called out. "Let's get to it!"

Mizuki paused and looked around her at the other people in the third bleachers.

"Hey, I might be no good," she said. "But why did they stick me with all the nerds? I mean I can see why you're here, Shinji, but why would she put a beautiful girl like me who tries hard out here?"

"Maybe it's because of the time you knocked yourself out with the basketball!" Shinji wondered.

"Ohh! I'm going to show her I'm ready for real PE," Mizuki said with fire in her eyes.

"You're going rabid wombat again, aren't you?" Shinji asked.

* * *

"Okay, so we've got the photos and the blueprints," a man said. "You know the targets and the objectives."

Pictures sat out on the table of several individuals.

"Our job is to be in and out as soon as possible," he declared. "But that hardly needs to be said because for us, this is personal."

The young man leaned down into the light revealing that he was no more than in his early twenties.

"These are the people that stopped the Behemoth before it could carry out our revenge," he said. "And the heavens themselves support our cause even if our leader Seina has abandoned the cause. We'll get rid of this blot now and bring heaven's glory to Tokyo as our fist."

On the table, the pictures of Mara Geisthexe, the Satomis, Kaname Chidori and and Sousuke Sagara sat prominent among a small collection of other VIPs.

* * *

Another young woman quietly wandered into the back of the building, glancing over her shoulder as she slipped into the maintenance shed, hoping she hadn't been seen. The last thing she was going to need to deal with school security.

"Okay, janitor's clothes," she said. "And see if I can get in place before I have to deal with some school rent-a-cop as well as A-21."

* * *

Wraith didn't like to leave her position if she could avoid it. Which is why she found it annoying as she watched a known terrorist slip in past the security into the maintenance shed. Granted, she couldn't say too much, having almost missed the entry herself.

She took a cell-phone and dialed a number.

Beepers across the school went off.

* * *

"And, that's what we'll be doing today," Coach Konjo said as she glanced at her beeper.

"Is there a situation?" Sousuke asked indicating the beeper.

"Mr. Sagara," Konjo said. "The only situation I want to see you focus on is the love in your heart..."

Kaname and Eija sitting on either side of Sousuke flushed brightly as the woman winked at them.

"...and the fact that I will enforce you not aggravating injuries. Now, back to..."

One of the male coaches came over looking a bit embarrassed.

"Didn't you assign an Inaba to my group?" he asked.

"Well," the coach said. "Yes, why do you ask?"

* * *

"Hey, Gei-sensei," one of the students called out.

Mara winced at the shortening of her surname, especially given how it would sound to some people, and stood up straight.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Moloch just got up and walked away from the group," the student said.

Mara had already noticed the "student" in particular doing that and glanced across toward the named person as he stood at the doorway and leaned immediately to its side, ears cocked pointedly.

"On call," he said, holding his beeper up for Mara to see.

"Right," Mara said before turning back to the other students. "Moloch has a family job that sometimes calls for him to be ready to go. Just deal without him for now."

"Sounds like a gangster to me," the complaining student grumbled.

* * *

"Careful," the art teacher said. "These slabs will just shatter completely if you hit them wrong and then you'll have to hope I...

"Iseei-Kun!" Mizuki shouted slamming open a door to the art room and startling half the class.

Stone fragments showered half the class room followed by the wails of the educationally damned.

"Gah!" the martial artist snapped. "What are you doing here, woman?"

Mizuki, still in her gym uniform scooted up into his face and bunched her fists together.

"The new PE teacher put me in with all the nerds!" she whined.

"Why shouldn't she?" he asked. "You're a walking injury waiting to happen. And what can I do about it?"

He looked around to notice all the looks he was getting.

"Come say that I can be with the normal students," she said. "You're a martial artist and you say I'm impossible! So you can convince this new teacher to put me out of the nerds!"

"It wasn't long ago that you bragged to a bunch of thugs about me so that they'd be ticked off and look for a fight," he reminded her.

"And you never said thank you!" Mizuki said. "Please do this favor?"

"How did you find me anyway," he asked. "I have a brand new class schedule since last week."

"I asked around," Mizuki said.

* * *

The caretaker looked at the trail of disturbed classrooms in dismay.

Chemistry club members in an off period had an experiment disturbed by a suddenly opening door.

That room was spewing forth smoke.

The next room had a number of students either chasing or trying to avoid the frogs that had escaped when the teacher dropped the cage upon being shocked.

A pair of students who'd been in the hall with water buckets were trying to dry themselves out and get a handle on their rattled skulls.

The trail of chaos continued more or less down the corridor.

"I'm going to need help on this one," he sighed. "Between Sagara, Tsubaki, Inaba and that green-haired Satomi, it's a wonder we have a school left."

* * *

Seina paused in the hallway as she caught sight down the hall of a girl with long dark hair and blue facial marks, gasping she ducked into a nearby room, waiting for the girl, who looked about fourteen to turn down another hallway.

"No, I was living in Japan when it happened," she was saying. "My family just freaked out and paranoid. What do you think Junpei Kamiya? I heard he's from a great family..."

The rest of the discussion moved on and Seina started to push into the room.

"Was that one of those..." she started to ask before an old man in a maintenance uniform came around and found her standing there.

"Hey there, you must be one of these new hires," he said.

"Yeah," Seina said instantly.

"Good, we've got some work for you to do this way," he said, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her down a hall.

A moment later and one of the newer secretaries came through the same hallway, watching carefully.

"This hallway is clear," she said. "Do we have an description besides Japanese female?"

* * *

The former leader of a terrorist group grimaced irritably as she waited for the watchful, if nice, old janitor to go off and do something else so she could get back to familiarizing herself with the layout and trying to find the few targets she knew were in this school.

In retrospect, next time she planned to defy the plan of inhuman invaders disguised as people, she should wait until she saw all the information first.

"Oh, hmm," the janitor said, "I need to get us some more trash bags. I'll be right back you wait here."

"Sure thing, sir," Seina said politely.

She waited for him to leave before standing up and starting to leave the hallway. A sight outside caught her eyes, and she moved toward the open window to note one of her more recent recruits starting to move on the outer edges of the school.

"Here they..."

The door immediately behind her swung open forcefully, and slammed into her backside, sending the wide-eyed woman tumbling out of the window.

"Let go of me, woman!" Issei demanded as Mizuki pulled him through it, snatching his hand away from her. "I'm going back to my class, I don't have time to help you pass your physical test."

"But you can't go now," Mizuki whined. "I've gotten you this far already!"

"I have no reason to want to help you," Tsubaki said.

"But whenever I prank order the jerks," she said. "I always make sure to use your family's restaurant."

"It's you doing that?" he demanded angrily, marching down the hall towards the other end.

They paused as a tall young man, one of the new students wearing a hall monitor's badge, came into the hallway ahead of them looking about the area and then pausing to look at the two students.

"Have you two seen anybody suspicious around here?" he asked.

"Mizuki Inaba is the definition of suspicious," Issei said bitterly. "But other than her, no."

"Get to class," he said tersely.

"I'm trying to," Issei insisted bitterly as the older student started to walk away. "Who's he to ask about suspicious characters?"

That said, he turned to look and find Mizuki glaring up into his face.

"Aren't you going to help me please?" she asked.

"Aren't you supposed to try that with a puppy-dog face?" he demanded.

Mizuki leaned back, fuming.

"Fine then," she noted. "If you're going to be that way."

She turned around and started to take a step.

"Finally," Issei said. "I can go back to my..."

And as he started to turn, Mizuki turned her mid-air foot around and stepped close to his face, yanking the glasses and then running down the hall.

"Wo...Woman!" Issei shouted. "Bring those back!"

"Not until you help me!" the school girl declared.

* * *

Sousuke and Naiki exchanged a look as Coach Konjo went about testing the readiness of the rest of their class. Deimosu himself had his own furtive look toward one of the exits. There was something going on, they knew it.

Sitting next to Sousuke, Eija leaned over toward the soldier as Kaname did her push ups under Coach Konjo's eye.

"Stay here, please," she whispered. "There's other people now, and you're still hurt."

_Tell...tell him I don't want to go through my entire life watching the two of you move from one injury to the next._

"Kaname would like us to take some time for ourselves," Eija whispered. "Deal with...stuff."

"I am responsible for the safety of you both," he whispered back. "I could not let anything happen to either of you."

"Then wouldn't it be best if you stayed nearby" Eija asked, holding his hand.

_And tell...him I still have my harisen nearby, if he disagrees,_ Kaname added with playful irritation.

Eija's mouth twitched into a smile briefly as she continued whispering.

"Kaname is also most insistent," the Goddess said, glancing over toward the human girl's things including her harisen.

"I see," Sousuke said. "If you might relay that such a response is not required..."

Deimosu and Yonjuu had their own conversation going on.

_I'm going to see what's going on,_ he said. _Can you smell anything?_

_I thought I smelled gunoil,_ Yonjuu said. _But I think that's just Sagara._

"Just a note," Coach Konjo said without turning around. "I've got the marks, I can hear you even if I can't tell what you're saying. Much as I understand the desire of a heart in love to exchange sweet nothings, not during my instruction please."

"There's nothing like that going on here?" Yonjuu protested immediately.

"Why is it you immediately assume that it's some sort of love thing?" he asked.

He glanced over toward where Kaname was pausing in her push-ups and then toward Eija and Sousuke.

"Isn't that ridiculous?" he asked.

"What?" Kaname asked.

Kaname and Eija then blinked and almost in unison said.

"Oh!"

"Right, we were discussing our curiosity of what the beeper was for," Eija said.

"Right, it just seemed important," Kaname agreed.

"Eija and Kaname are correct," Sousuke agreed. "We were...is there something wrong?"

Kaname and Eija were staring at him from their respective positions.

_Oh my god, he said our names!_ Kaname said blushing furiously.

_And it isn't even a life or death situation._ Eija noted.

_You're even awake to hear it this time._ Kaname noted.

_Calm, calm,_ Eija said. _We have images to maintain._

_Right,_ Kaname agreed. _The last thing we need is to go "squee" like Lusca._

Deimosu grimaced and narrowed his eyes at Kaname and Sousuke as the exchange went on and Coach Konjo sighed and put a palm to her face. The half-Greek Ainur was unable to tell which he was most annoyed with: the two-timing mercenary or the violent school girl.

_If they both like him and each other is there a..._

"Telepathy, stop," Coach Konjo noted impatiently.

And then a long ribbon appeared in her hand and snaked out to the side before coming back heavier by two demons.

"I was almost to the door," Naiki said. "You couldn't keep her busy a little longer?"

"I'm...I'm so..." Lusca said, tied against Naiki's back. "Squeee!"

"You probably got me noticed," Naiki groaned.

"Now," Coach Konjo said. "I think it's time to see what Naiki can do with those injuries."

"Yeah, injuries," Naiki said. "Aren't you not supposed to be aggravating mine?"

"Are yours aggravated?" Konjo asked casually.

"Damn it, why can't you Masters be less awesome!" Naiki said.

* * *

Seina blinked as she pulled herself out of the dumpster she had fallen into after being pushed out the window. Carefully she tried to find her old comrade again, but failed to irritably enough.

Picking bits of debris out of her hair and clothes, she moved back toward the building, a little bit unstable in her footing and trying to consider where she'd attack if it was her.

She was halfway to the position she'd decided on, when a quick pat down revealed a lack of some of the personal weapons she'd brought with her.

"Let me guess," she said. "They're in the dumpster."

* * *

Wraith stood up and started to bring together her sniper rifle as she identified the third clear intruder moving in on the school. She'd already given the alert that there were more intruders than the first, and it looked like they were about to face a major incursion.

One pair of the terrorists were coming up to one of the side doors cautiously and looking for any sign of trouble.

Of course, they failed to note the high-powered rifle that was lining them up with a silencer.

Wraith's shot was thrown off when the door the terrorist was about to open slammed corner first into his face, sending him sprawling backwards into the bushes as his friend stared in shock.

For her own part, Wraith thanked the lucky stars that all she'd managed to do was break the glasses in the schoolgirl's hands.

* * *

"Did I just hear my glasses break, Woman?" Issei demanded coming out of the school.

Mizuki nervously glanced at the mysteriously shattered glasses and then over towards the suddenly appeared guy apparently geared up for a paintball match for some reason.

"He did it," she said.

"Now, you two hold it right there and you won't..." the terrorist started to say.

"Haven't you caused enough trouble Sagara?" Issei shouted, misidentifying the blur based on the impression he had of military gear.

His kicked slammed the terrorist up into the roof, knocking him cold and then showed him that Mizuki had fled in the confusion. Grimacing and irritable, he turned back to the school, giving Sousuke one last kick to the face as the soldier-otaku tried to stand up again.

Oddly, it seemed to Tsubaki that Sousuke had been coming from the wrong direction based on where he'd fallen the first time.

Whatever, it was immaterial.

Now, if it had been Satomi he'd just laid out, green hair and all, this whole thing would have been worth it.

* * *

Deimosu glanced around carefully and made sure that none of the gym teachers seemed to be watching as he tried to slip into the umisenken and head out into the school as a whole.

Almost immediately, he felt himself stumbling to the floor as a long baton seemed to slip between his legs. And then a ribbon wrapped around his feet and he was pulled back into the group.

_At least I got closer than Naiki,_ he muttered.

"It's like she's using tentacles!" Lusca said.

"Bah, Gymnastics Martial Arts, I can use the ribbon like that," Naiki said.

Immediately, the Demoness smacked her own face with her palm.

"You can do that!" Lusca said. "Are you saying you've mastered tentacle fighting without tentacles?"

"It's no...I'm not...Gah!" Naiki gasped.

"So talented!" the other demoness gushed. "Squeee."

_Naiki, I know she's annoying you,_ Tessa's mind noted. _But can you keep the groans to a dull roar?_

Lusca turned a bit more serious and glanced toward Naiki.

"Who are you talking to?" she asked.

"Oh, right, another Demon," Naiki muttered.

* * *

Seina took a page from the misfortune that had sent her tumbling into the dumpster earlier, and waited as her former comrades prepared their entry to the school. Slamming the door open at just the right time, she knocked one of them off his feet immediately, and the next moved to slow before she grabbed him and slammed his face into her knee.

After that, she went about checking their unconscious forms for anything she could use and found some zip ties.

She probably should have just killed them, but they had been her people not too long ago. Even if they were working for someone more than a little suspicious right now, they were still the closest she had to family.

"They were making this a quiet raid though," she noted. "For this sort of thing, I almost expected an AS to cow the school."

She moved back around the outer wall, looking for more of her people.

A couple of seconds later, the secretary poked her head out of the building and found the unconscious terrorists.

"I have two more downed here," she said. "Seriously, would someone take credit for these while I get them out of the way?"

* * *

Mizuki forlornly wandered off around the edges of the school, pausing to notice some of Sousuke's paintball things sitting beside the dumpster. Granted, it occurred to her that Sousuke had had some very real combat injuries, but for the moment she was used to thinking of Sousuke as the military otaku with the toy guns.

Idly, she picked up the gun and the two paint grenades, that's what they had to be, and shook her head as she continued wandering and slipping back into the halls and up the stairs toward the roof.

"What do I do now?" she wondered. "I'm dead, I just know it."

She took the gun to her head and pulled the trigger, expecting a paint ball to the head. She was unaware of just how painful a point blank paint ball would be.

Mizuki was equally unaware of just how safeties worked, and was just confused when the gun failed to fire.

"So that's why he threw these away," Mizuki said. "They're broken."

She tossed the gun idly over the edge of the roof.

Then, just for frustrations sake, she took the grenades and pulled and pocketed the pins before hauling off and tossing them to the horizon.

* * *

Wraith gawked as the school blithely tossed what were probably two live grenades out at random after failing to shoot herself in the head.

"Seriously," the intelligence agent muttered. "I'd be doing her a favor to shoot her knee out right now."

Meanwhile, she tracked the grenades, hoping against hope that they wouldn't find any civilians.

* * *

"Park here," the truck's passenger said as he looked back in the rear-view mirror to see if they'd attracted any attention yet. "The school is just over the hill here."

He looked away before he saw the grenades, the spoon holding inordinately long on each, bouncing down the street.

"I'm opening the back," the driver said. "We should get ready."

And the grenades bounced in through the open door of the delivery trick and into the open and waiting cockpit of the very obsolete AS inside.

* * *

"Wow!" Mizuki said as she saw the smoke rise up in the distance. "I'd almost think that was..."

She stopped and started thinking things through.

"What the hell?" she screamed. "Those were real?"

She looked at her hands nervously.

"I almost killed myself," she said. "Thank goodness the gun wasn't loaded. Wait a minute...those people outside the door!"

* * *

The driver and passenger of the camouflaged AS delivery shook their heads and stumbled out of the wreckage of the obliterated truck, feeling both confused and very, very lucky to have survived.

* * *

Seina ducked aside as she saw what was clearly one of the security personnel on the school wander into view. However, it seemed clear that she wasn't the only one that had chosen this hiding place.

A circle of cold metal was put to the back of her head as she backed her way into cover.

"Drop the gun" a voice said and she reluctantly complied.

"Seina," the man behind her said. "I can't let you stop us. This is bigger than us now. This is about the Gods."

"You mean those people in the refuges?" she asked.

"Imposters and rebellious lessers," he said. "That's what Xipe Totec says. He says he serves the true leaders of Heaven and we will..."

The rant was stopped as something fell hard into his head from above and bounced up.

Turning about as her old comrade's gun left her skull, Seina's motions were almost interrupted as she found her own gun bouncing into her hands. She quickly grabbed it and had it pointed at her once friend while he was still recovering from the sharp below to head.

And then she smacked it across the other terrorist's face and watched him crumple.

Seina went to work with the zip ties to secure him and looked up into the sky in confusion and bewilderment before looking back at the gun she was sure that she'd lost at the dumpster.

"That'll hold you until I get the rest of..."

"Hold it right there," a couple of voices declared, drawing Seina's attention to secretary and an older student that were holding guns on her.

"I'm on your side here," she protested darkly.

"Forgive me if we don'..." the secretary started to say before an explosion ripped up in the distance.

Eyes turned and Seina dashed away.

* * *

At the distant sound of an explosion, Sousuke and Eija each got to their feet and started heading at a run for the doors.

_Kaname sorry, but,_ Eija was saying.

_No problem!_ Kaname returned vigorously. _Go!_

Sousuke and Eija exchanged a nod confirming Kaname's approval and saw the door getting close to their reach.

Coach Konjo shook her head casually and whipped out with her ribbon to catch the two up and drag them back. Where they found themselves sitting around a bound and tied Naiki as well as a trussed up and hanging upside down Deimosu.

"Welcome to the party," Naiki said.

"Coach Konjo?" Lusca called out. "Can I go to the restroom."

"Sure, but stay in this building," Coach Konjo said.

"Why does she get to go?" Deimosu asked.

"Because her hurt is so full of love for your sister that if she wants to go it clearly must be needed," the woman said in a dramatic sighing tone.

"So true!" Lusca said with a sigh as she reluctantly left the room.

"Can anybody understand what she's talking about?" Naiki asked.

Kaname and Eija blushed as Sousuke looked a little uncomfortable.

"Well, anyway," the coach said. "I think it's time to see where my niece stands."

"Niece?" Yonjuu repeated nervously. "Uheheh."

* * *

Mizuki came rushing down the stairs barreling at a full tilt run such that when she took the first turn, she overshot and started the process of tumbling down the stairs with a wild scream that was nothing about terrorists and everything about the falls.

Fortunately for her, the first real heavy fall was broken as she slammed into a person climbing his way cautiously to the top, sending said person flying backwards into another tactical geared friend. The second friend tumbled through an open window out into open air as the first hit his head and partially collapsed in the stairwell.

Picking herself up, Seina limped a few feet and then noticed the radio on the unconscious soldier's jacket and snatched it up before going off running.

* * *

"That's one of the Demons he told us about," one of four A-21 terrorists said as they pointed toward a brown-haired girl with eight long braids in her hair.

The girl was currently leaning over and drinking out of a fountain as they took aim at her back.

"HEY! There are people with guns in the school! And it's not one of Sousuke Sagara's things! If you can hear this, they're right by you because I stole one of their radios!"

The four soldiers paused to switch off their radios immediately and then turn to look up at the pettanko who had turned around to face them with a serious expression.

"That's not funny," the girl said.

* * *

"Okay," Coach Konjo said. "I see we're going to have a little bit of trouble following orders. Now, Naiki and Sousuke normally would be expecting to respond when we have this sort of school activity, but not with medical limits."

Yonjuu was on her knees leaning forward and panting heavily.

_Are you okay?_ Deimosu asked. "What about me? I'm not injured."

_The floor hasn't stopped moving yet._

"You're also not part of the same sort of extracurricular club as Naiki ad Sousuke are," Konjo said.

_Military organizations are extracurricular clubs?_ Naiki asked.

_What are you talking about now?_ Tessa asked with a sigh.

"Now let's get on with..." Coach Konjo was interrupted by the sound of gunfire in the hallway.

Everybody, normal students and otherwise watched as two screaming men in tactical gear backed away into the gymnasium. Most of the group moved to act when a long brown tentacle stretched out of the wall and grabbed one of the two men, pulling him back.

The man was pulled into the wall hard and stopped with a thud.

The tentacle tried pulling him through the wall a second and third time for the onlookers. When that failed, it tried several more times, with petulant rapidity before, with an air of frustration, tossing the man toward the door.

Apparently it had decided that physical barriers weren't quite as passable to its target.

A second tentacle grabbed the barely conscious terrorist out of the air and pulled him into the hallway beyond. This time through the door.

The remaining terrorist dropped to his knees as the the tentacles vanished with his comrade and took several breaths.

Which was about the point Coach Konjo slashed through his gun with her ribbon, destroying it. This was followed up by her wrapping the terrorist himself up, swinging him in an arch and then tossing him out the door.

The teacher then idly whipped the ribbon out to grab the door and pull it closed.

"Now, while Lusca is getting her workout..."

"What the hell is she Demon of?" Naiki wondered aloud.

* * *

As Mizuki's radio message carried into Mara's classroom, Moloch was suddenly not leaning near the door any longer. His previous position taken up by a puff of smoke.

This was followed by a very painful sounding pair of thuds that shook the classroom and much of what was nearby.

"Must be some sort of drill," Mara reasoned as Moloch walked into the room, brushing his hands.

* * *

"Hey, you stupid, gun-toting jerks!" Mizuki shouted angrily into the radio. "What the hell are you here for? We already have one gun freak all ready and he's more than enough."

The sound of clicking gun sounds came to her and she slowly turned around to face the trio of terrorists holding their guns on her.

"Uhhh," Mizuki said. "Here you can have these."

And she tossed a pair of small objects toward them.

"What the heck are you expecting to do with tho..." one of the three started to say as his immediate comrade grabbed his shoulder and pointed down to the items Mizuki had dropped.

"Oh crap! She has grenades!"

And the three turned about and ran from Mizuki full tilt.

And Mizuki followed.

Full tilt.

Shouting.

"GRENADES!"

She got around one corner before quieting down and running pell mell the other direction.

A minute later, the three A-21 terrorists figured out what she'd done and came after her.

They turned a wrong corner then and found themselves in front of a tall, dark haired young woman with blue marks on her face.

"Hey, my name is Thrud, daughter of Thor," she said as she cracked her knuckles.

* * *

Wraith shook her head at the absurdity of it all as she listened in on the security channels. At least they now knew how much trouble the Imperial bodyguard had likely caused.

Then she dropped down from a low balcony and caught up the form of Seina in the woman's flight away from the scene.

"Now," Wraith said, holding Seina still against the nearest wall. "Let's talk..."

* * *

Mizuki stumbled into the gymnasium, breathing heavily and threatening to fall over at any moment.

"Sousuke...guns," she gasped pointing back over her shoulder. "Grenades...running...people..."

Coach Konjo shook her head and moved over to the girl with her clipboard.

"Okay..." she said. "Bleacher re-assignment. You're now in the first bleachers, go sit down next to Yonjuu."

"I'm group 1?" Mizuki gasped, blinking, suddenly forgetting everything else.

Mizuki clasped her hands together and started to run back out the door to go give the news to Issei. And she was barely halfway to the door when the ribbon wrapped around her feet and yanked her back to sitting next to Yonjuu.

"And welcome to first bleachers," Kaname noted idly, indicating the way Mizuki had been deposited in her seat.

* * *

AUTHOR NOTE:

This is more Ranma and OMG than FMP given that nobody died. But eh, wanted another thing before the next big fight.


	40. The Siege of Meridia

"Okay," Chihiro said, wiping some sweat off her forehead and replacing it with a bit of motor oil. "So what have we got?"

"Urd and Megumi are tracking down the memory leaks in the software," Keiichi said. "They think they've got most of them. The basic chassis works and we know it works."

"Yeah," Chihiro said. "Still working on the whole jumpjet thing though."

"Tell me about it," Keiichi said, shaking his head.

Last time they had tested the jumpjet steering, he'd slammed into a cliff-face. He'd been lucky to get out of it without a serious injury and that particular prototype had been scrapped.

"That was very...concerning," Belldandy agreed as she served drinks to the two and then sat down beside Keiichi.

There was a moment of a shared look and thought.

"Guys, we're on a deadline," Chihiro noted before she lost both Keiichi and Belldandy, who was no slouch with a toolkit despite being girly, to other activities.

"Yes, of course," Belldandy said reluctantly.

"Right, let's get this done," Keiichi said.

They were working in the open air by one of the AS storage bays and thus didn't hear when Tessa walked onto the area to check in on how they were doing.

"Going well?" she asked, glancing around.

"Have you got those battery designs you said you could do?" Chihiro asked.

Tessa smiled and handed over a manila envelope.

"There should be three test units coming your way soon," she said. "My apologies for taking so long, but..."

"You've got other things on your plate," Keiichi said. "Lots of other things."

"This is very true," Tessa said with a sigh as she walked over toward the prototypes. "I must say this is very impressive. It took us three Whispered and five years to create the M-9's various systems, especially the electroactive polymers, and then perfect it enough for field testing."

She examined the inner workings of one of the damaged prototypes.

"This material of yours is different," she noted. "You came up with it yourself, in your own facilities?"

"In Keiichi's backyard, mostly," Chihiro said. "Though we did have help."

"Oh, it was all quite you," Belldandy said. "Urd and I are network programmers primarily. And Skuld...is still learning to be practical."

"I do wonder if the Gods and Demons have something similar," Tessa noted.

"Not really," Belldandy said. "We stopped experimenting with such things after a time. Yggdrasil makes them more or less obsolete for most matters and as weapons, we had the doublet system..."

"So why are we still working on this?" Megumi asked, turning from her software simulation. "Aren't you working on that Silmaril thing?"

"Which will work for the handful of hundreds of Ainur that might be around by then, perhaps some Gods and Demons," Tessa said. "The remaining several million humans and handful of other sentients...?"

"Ah, right," Megumi said. "How many people are you offering this thing to anyway?"

"As many as possible," Tessa said. "We're going to need the help I think and given how few it actually works on..."

"So you've had failures then?" Keiichi asked. "It seemed to go well with all of us."

"Disturbing sort of process though," Megumi said.

"Most of the staff here couldn't make the change," Tessa said. "Reports from the American and Japanese governments suggest similar situations with the Whispers of Souls we gave them. But so far, we've limited to select military personnel, psychics, human paranaturals and some certain civilians in the know. We'll see what happens if it gets to the full public."

"Back to engineering, this other thing," Chihiro said suddenly. "These crystals and circles you want embedded or inscribed. The way I understand it this is like supernatural circuitry?"

"That's as good a way to put it as any," Belldandy said. "If you were to look into an Asgard computer or Mantle you would find it is mostly vegetable matter, closely related to the ash tree."

Urd nodded and turned toward the conversation then.

"And Nifelheim computers and Carapaces would look genetically very similar to a python," she noted. "It's why snakes and Demons have been linked for so long."

"And for us, we apparently deal best with complex crystals," Tessa said.

"Well that be an Ainur only thing?" Keiichi asked.

"I get this feeling that anybody with chi could use these things," Megumi said. "Sort had this weird day dream with lots of numbers and someone whispering..."

"That would be the Whispered network," Tessa said. "All the information and ideas in the network are floating out there, sometimes they used to just filter in. Now, we have to deliberately go looking for it."

"Which is safer but also slows things down," Urd said. "Even safer would be to use consoles rather than direct diving the network...but your Silmaril isn't up yet, and our networks are down, so not quite an option."

"You do have a prophet, however," Belldandy said. "We think. Have you found out who yet."

"I have my suspicions," Tessa assured them. "How is your normal business progressing. Are we causing you too much trouble?"

"We asked a friend to keep track of it," Chihiro said. "She'll make sure certain people stay in check."

"Ah, yes," Tessa said with a bit of a frown. "She's probably a good choice."

* * *

"Listen," Tamaki was saying authoritatively, "this is mechanics and engineering. Which you know nothing about! We're giving the customer exactly what he really wants with..."

"Oh no," Sayoko said, wagging her finger. "You are giving the customer what you want! Chihiro warned me about this. Said you did something similar when she went on vacation and you started tweaking bikes. As I understand it, you then had to waste hundreds of man-hours fixing your tweaks for dissatisfied customers."

"They just didn't understand how to..." Otaki was trying to say.

"No, stop there," Sayoko said. "I don't know much about engineering, but I know about giving people what they want! And I know when someone is trying to push on me what they think I want. And since Chihiro, Keiichi, Urd..."

She ticked off fingers.

"...and even Belldandy warned me about this," she said, emphasizing the last name heavily. "I'm keeping an eye out for it."

The two over-sized mechanics started to open their mouths.

"And if you think you can get something past me," she said. "I also have Sora watching your every move as well, and she DOES know her engineering. So behave and when...not if...when I report to Chihiro...there will be nothing for you to worry about."

"But some of these mods are just so lame," Tamaki said. "Like here, if we just add a slightly bigger engine to this car..."

"What does a golf cart need with a V-8 engine?" Sayoko demanded.

* * *

Nimu ducked under Shampoo's strike, avoiding the first blow as the Amazon champion stepped forward to press the attack.

"Kodachi, when she still fought," Shampoo said. "Was a weapons user and only a weapons user. She primarily avoided contact and led opponents into traps, attacking where they were not ready."

Ranma was watching from the side, having already discussed Nimu's quick learning curve over the past month with Shampoo. It wasn't like she was mastering secret techniques in a week's time the way Ranma had as a teen, but she also didn't have the ten years prior background of real training to have that mindset.

She thought of what Tessa had passed on about prophets bringing the future forward. That's what seemed to be happening with all of the Ainur that Ranma was working with. Stuff they'd learn eventually was coming quicker, leading toward more discoveries.

Looking over toward Sanya running through Tai Chi and Stav routines with Eija seemed to confirm it. The girl had gone a heavy way toward controlling her motions more efficiently.

Which brought to mind her parent-teacher conversation with Mariko.

* * *

"What kind of training do you have them doing?" Mariko had asked.

"Eija is teaching, mostly, right now," Ranma said. "Saturdays she goes with her grandmother to help a Demoness death seer. She wroks with Yonjuu's younger sister on body control at least two hours at night. And I'm sure she's doing...something with Sousuke and Kaname."

"Oh yes," Mariko said. "That is such an obvious and heartfelt bond of...I'm doing it again, aren't I."

"Yeah," Ranma said. "Anyway, Naiki is getting some training with some other young Gods and Demons. Mostly theory right now."

"She's healing well though," the cheerleader said. "Should be fit for full training in the next couple of days."

"Yeah, I thought that too," Ranma said. "And she's working with Yonjuu on her senses."

* * *

"Oh my God!" Yonjuu gasped. "You can actually feel the electrical conduction in my body from ten feet away? That is so cool!"

"Uh, yeah, it's a shark thing," Naiki said. "But you can't do that so, back to smells..."

"Ohh! Can you really smell a drop of blood from hundreds of miles?" Yonjuu asked.

"In the water, yeah," Naiki said. "In the air, it's more like two miles...if the wind is right."

"That is just so awesome!" Yonjuu said. "When Deimosu said his sister had the senses of a shark, I never thought I'd actually be able to see it in operation. Isn't that awesome?"

"So awesome and so cute!" Lusca said. "She's just Soooo...Naiki!"

"Aren't you supposed to be going off and crushing on my brother?" Naiki asked.

Yonjuu immediately blushed and looked away.

"And why are you here anyway?" Naiki asked, pointing at Lusca.

"I'm watching you teach!" the smaller Demoness said. "You're so wise! Squeeeee!"

"What did I do to deserve a fangirl posse?" Naiki asked the heavens.

"I think it's cute," Kyoko said from a chair nearby, clicking a picture. "You know, like when you get around Geisthexe-san. Or Urd-san. Or Mr. Weber."

Naiki thought about that a moment.

"Oh."

* * *

"And Deimosu..." Ranma frowned, considering her son. "He teaches Yonjuu, but he hasn't worked with me much since he got back."

It annoyed her to suspect that somewhere in Deimosu's head, she'd become only a person to protect and not a person to learn from or respect.

"I've seen some problems with him," Mariko noted. "Lusca sort of ignores him. Naiki and Eija, his sisters, seem to tolerate him..."

"An Eija's part, that's mostly because he doesn't like her..." Ranma paused. "What do we call that anyway?"

"Boyfriend and girlfriend?" Mariko asked. "Soulmates? Destined lovers bound by the red string of...right, doing it again. Anyway, if I have Deimosu in a class with any other Demon or God, I find I have to separate them. Understandable, but he's not making it any easier with his 'it had to be done' attitude."

"I'll see if I can talk to him," Ranma said.

"How about Sousuke and Kaname?" Mariko asked.

"Chi control for Sousuke and I'm not teaching Kaname anything," the redhead noted. "She hasn't asked. Not my kid or a soldier to lay down the law on."

"I'd think the way things are going..." Mariko said.

"Yeah," Ranma noted. "Sneak something in, I guess, see if she gets interested."

"Doing it," Mariko said.

"And, by the way...Mizuki Inaba..." Ranma said with narrowed eyes.

"You asked me to keep an eye the people with the most likelihood to make things crazy at that school," Mariko noted. "She's by far the most likely to cause trouble. I'd almost she was chaos incarnate which is funny, because I knew you as a kid."

"Funny," Ranma said. "I wasn't chaos, it just happened around me. Mizuki went on a field trip to the water and power department, and the streets were flooded within two hours. Because she was annoyed at some shop that overcharged her."

"Yeah, well, I think I can keep her out of trouble," Mariko said.

There was a moment of silence before Mariko quietly changed the subject.

"Is there any word?" she asked.

"Yeah," Ranma said. "The Americans had her. They're going to cremate her and send the ashes back. You won't have to see her like that this way."

Mariko hung her head, tears leaking out of the corner of her eyes.

"I kinda knew...after your briefing," Mariko said. "But I just sort of hoped...you know, that Kodachi had taken her for...something less...terrible."

Ranma reached out to put a hand on the other girl's shoulder and hold her.

"Well, we'll be able to put her to rest now," Mariko said. "Her little brother and sister and I."

She then turned to look at Ranma forcefully.

"That woman dies," she said. "Every part of her. Everyone she's stolen gets to see her go down. They all get to rest."

"We're going to wipe her out," Ranma assured Mariko, keeping the rest of the thought to herself. "As soon as we figure out how."

* * *

Tessa looked across at her two immediate subordinates reading the report on the attack at Jindai as well as other things that Kalinin was looking into. And a rather reluctantly delivered report from Ranma Satomi on the health of certain individuals.

"I don't want to do this before this leak is plugged," Tessa said.

"That is taking longer than expected," Kalinin said. "It is still not clear whether the leak is in intelligence or our own division. What information has gotten out could have come from either."

"It's got to be someone highly placed," Tessa said. "Otherwise there are several little leaks all over, but for that to happen, someone would have to not be paying attention in recruitment, or deliberately putting in such people. Which, again, comes to someone high up in our circle."

"It could even be one of us in this room," Kalinin said.

"Are you accusing me," Mardukas asked.

"No, we're not going to think that way," Tessa said. "We've all gone through too much together to start distrusting each other now. Let's focus on the problem at hand."

"A number of Ainur have had encounters with the entity in the Whispers," Mardukas said. "And we can now report her name as 'Sophia' though that doesn't get us any closer to a true identity. She has attacked a few, new serious injuries yet, but it has been close a couple of times. She demands information about Miss Chidori fairly frequently."

"That's as much confirmation that we're going to get that Kaname Chidori is the Whispered keystone," Kalinin said. "This 'prophet' the Gods talk about. A large part of why the Whispered and Ainur learn so quickly."

"At the moment, Miss Chidori is only occasionally fully connected to the network," Tessa said. "She's only vulnerable while 'logged on' so to speak. If we try to put in the security, make her Ainur, she'll be logged on for quite a while before she's safe. If we do this while we have a leak, before we know everything about this Sophia...then we invite an attack in which she might bring extra forces."

"Given her defeat in earlier encounters with Eija Satomi," Kalinin said. "That is almost guaranteed."

"Everyone is healed and ready," Mardukas said. "Now is the time to act and be ready before something else comes to slow us down. If she is as important as our opponents' actions imply, it would be as important to secure her before the invasion happen as it is to finish the Silmaril."

Tessa took a deep breath.

"We're going," she said. "I'll talk to Mrs Morisato..."

"I would have thought she'd kept her own surname," Mardukas noted. "That is apparently standard for Norse women."

"She wanted to make a point, apparently," Tessa said. "At any rate, I shall speak to her and Miss Geisthexe. We'll have everything ready for the next weekend. If it goes well, things will be done before her next school day."

"I'll start to work on base security," Kalinin said. "This would be the perfect time for Amalgam to try an attack on us."

* * *

Kasumi perused Tofu's notes on the most recent medical seminar that the Demons had put together soon after arriving and the Gods had started to reluctantly get involved in.

From a view point of a pure medical concern, it seemed to her that the Demons had more experience with that sort of thing. The Gods seemed to use a lot of magic, which was fine for those that had that training...assuming it worked right when the people in control of Yggdrasil finally turned it on. Demons, by necessity, were more familiar actual anatomy and medical requirements.

Well, there was that Urd woman, who seemed to prefer herbalism, alchemy and the like over outright mana, chi or vitae use.

Nabiki was home, officially on maternal leave and officially resting.

Unofficially, she was keeping track of where her husband happened to be and managing the construction at what was going to be her new home.

"Yes, yes," she was saying. "I can see what you're talking about, that'll be enough then?"

Kasumi glanced into the main room where Nabiki had the cell phone to her ear and the TV set to receive a video feed of the construction site.

"Nabiki, you're not supposed to be stressing yourself," Kasumi said.

"Just don't skimp on this," Nabiki said. "If you need more or better material, I'll put in an order. But I want this done right. And I've got to go right now. Yes, the warden is watching."

"That's not a very nice thing to say about your sister who's letting you stay in her house while your own is getting built," Kasumi noted.

"It's the ancestral home, Kasumi," Nabiki responded.

"Still," Kasumi said, moving into the room and turning off the TV. "Micromanaging your house construction is not relaxing."

"It's relaxing for me," Nabiki said irritably.

She sighed and leaned back.

"Look, I need...something," she said. "You and Tofu are brushing up on your medical knowledge. Akane and Natsume are fighting monsters. Ryouga's putting his right place, wrong time thing to use. Ranma, of all people, is putting together a psychic army."

"Ryuu is watching his and Akane's children," Kasumi reminded her calmly. "And you are making a contribution in a way."

She reached out to pat Nabiki's belly gently.

"Focus on the important things, little sister," Kasumi said, then pausing and turning to her sister. "Oh, If we have guests, the red sticker condiments are not for friendly Demons and the blue sticker condiments are not for friendly Gods."

"Shouldn't those colors be reversed?" Nabiki asked.

"It depends on the guest," Kasumi returned idly before moving back to the kitchen.

* * *

"So, we were going to go to Akihabara, this weekend," Mizuki said. "Issei was going to take me. And I invited Kyoko and Shinji and Lusca and everybody."

"There is a task we have to attend to," Sousuke noted calmly.

"Yeah," Kaname said. "There's something we're doing over the weekend."

"Awww, but everybody is going," Mizuki said. "Wait, you..."we have plans"...what we?"

"All the Satomis, their cousins, Sousuke and me," Kaname said.

"Sounds like a family reunion," Kyoko said helpfully.

"Really?" Mizuki said in a sly tone. "So, Eija invited both of you to a family thing?"

Eija quietly ate her lunch and set about not making things worse.

_You could say something_ Kaname noted.

_I'm hoping that just letting them run with it will be saner in the long run._

"Actually," Sousuke said. "This is mostly about Kaname."

Eija hung her head as Kaname stood up and wrapped a hand around Sousuke's mouth.

"What he means is..." Kaname looked around at the various faces watching her. "Yeah, Eija's family wants to meet me and Sousuke. Because we're...dating."

She sounded a combination of relieved and defeated as she admitted to it.

Eija blushed visibly and looked around as Sousuke waited patiently for Kaname to release his mouth and set down, though he was mindful of the harisen that she pulled around prominently into her lap.

"You, Eija and Sousuke, really are...?" Mizuki pointed toward them and started crossing her fingers together.

"Well, in a manner of speaking," the Goddess said.

"We've been on several outings together," Sousuke agreed, actually flushing a little in spite of herself. "Though it is not the..."

And at that point Kaname's harisen demonstratively smacked one of her thighs.

"So, does that mean that you've kissed?" Mizuki asked.

Kyoko leaned forward carefully to listen.

Sousuke, was thinking of this in the most literal way possible, and both Kaname and Eija had, of late, kissed him on the cheek or something equally chaste.

Eija and Kaname flushed, with the Goddess interlocking her fingers nervously and Kaname rubbing forcefully at her forehead.

"Yes," all three said about the same time.

"So who gives the best tongue?" Mizuki asked.

Sousuke was oblivious, Eija started out oblivious. Kaname choked almost immediately and started blushing furiously. Then Eija's eyes started to go wide as she flushed.

"Oh, looks like Eija's figuring it out," Kyoko said. "Next they'll remember the word 'which'"..."

As the images shifted around in Kaname and Eija's mind from deep romantic kisses with Sousuke into kissing each other, there was a clear result...

"Wow, I can actually notice Eija getting whiter," Kyoko said. "That's impressive, Mizuki."

"I'm confused," Sousuke said. "What does tongue have to do with kissing."

"I'll...show you later," Kaname said under her breath. "Then, err, you can show Eija."

_Kaname_ Eija sent.

Kaname glanced over and then pointed toward where Kyoko and Mizuki were listening starry eyed.

"Oh no," Kaname said. "I didn't just...I didn't..."

"You did!" Kyoko said.

* * *

A large group of people walked into a crossroads under the power of Persephone and ended up on Meridia Island. And then, it was a march through the facility before they found the Whisper of Souls placed in the middle of a wide AS bay, currently empty as the vehicles were "on training maneuvers".

"Is this in a new place?" Kaname asked outside the building.

"We needed the room," Ranma said as Tessa pushed the access code in to give access to the main area.

The Whisper of Souls container sat in the middle, wires and tubes running to it from all directions, sitting in the middle of several lines and circles.

"Uhhh, what's all this?" Kaname asked.

"An experiment," Mara said as she stood up from checking one of the lines.

"Err, excuse me," Eija said cautiously. "You plan to put Kaname through an experiment?"

"Don't worry about that, Eija," Ranma said. "This has nothing to do with Captain Testarossa's machine there."

"So what is it all for," Sousuke asked.

"Hopefully, nothing," Urd said.

"I'll be right back," Persephone said.

"And us?" Nimu asked.

"We've got a ride planned for Sanya and Yaku to the Labryinth," Tessa said. Then she turned toward Sousuke and Naiki. "Are you two ready?"

"Yeah, but shouldn't I be doing the ritual thing?" Naiki asked. "What are you going to need me out here for, it's a secret base, right?"

"That's the hope," Tessa said firmly.

* * *

In Tokyo

"Where's Naiki?" Lusca asked Kyoko and Mizuki.

"She had some sort of family thing," Mizuki said.

"Family thing? So loyal!" she said. "But soooo not here!"

* * *

Kurz sat beside Shichimu as she slept in her bed, currently transferred to the Labyrinth away from the battle.

His sniper rifle sat behind behind him against a cave wall that had become almost completely crystal.

At this moment, like this while she slept, it almost looked like nothing had changed. However, she was no longer a light sleeper, the instincts and dangers that had created that aspect of her had been wiped out of her mind.

Someone tripped and spilled something metal across the floor and Shichimu slept on where the one he'd moved through Europe with would have already been awake with much less, not looking disturbed, but paying attention.

He held her hand loosely for a moment, head straightening as she tightened her grip on his and then released as she shifted about in the bed, very much the dreaming child.

The sniper glanced around the room and saw a number of Ni's reciting numbers. He recognized it for what it was, recitation of the dead.

Nimu and Sanya San sat in the back of the room quietly giving the Ni's there space until the little ritual was over and Kurz brushed back the girl's hair and stood up.

He walked out of the room, collected his rifle and a P90 for close work and walked toward another chamber where a circle had been drawn and a Japanese Ainur dressed in some sort of cheerleader outfit stood.

"I'm ready," he told the woman.

He tapped his own Ainur marks. Something that if he'd had a few weeks ago, might have given him something to save the Shichimu that he'd first met.

"And the rest of you?" Mariko asked.

"So say we all," a Ni said somewhere. "Ow! What did you hit me for?"

"She's a bit of a geek," Yonjuu said to Kurz.

* * *

"Are you ready for this, Kishi?" Bastet asked outside the warehouse. "This...thing has got to be awfully...familiar to you."

"She hasn't killed as many as I have," Kishimo-jin said with a quiet sad smile.

"That was a long time ago," Bastet said, patting her on the shoulders. "And you were never...what she is."

"Is there much of difference?" Kishimo-jin asked.

"You stopped," Bastet noted. "You've figured out how your going to do what needs to be done?"

"I've got an idea," Kishimo-jin said.

* * *

"Commander Mardukas, we are in the ordered position," one of the techs said.

"Good," he said. "Hold here until the signal is given."

In Tessa's personal quarters, Kali stepped out of a black cloth hanging up on the wall and pulled Naiki in with her.

"Tell her we're here," Kali told Naiki who nodded.

_Okay, can you tell where you are?_ Tessa asked.

_We're under the water, so yes,_ Naiki said.

_Show me,_ Tessa noted.

_Uhhh..._ Naiki fumbled for a bit and just focused on visualizing what she felt of her position in relation to the waves around her.

_And that's where I want her to be,_ Tessa responded, satisfied and deeply relieved. _Wait there._

"She says wait," Naiki said.

* * *

"This isn't the time I wanted to do this," Leonard noted with more than a trace of irritation.

He knew Sophia's likely response. That is was now or never.

That might have been true for the ghost, but he had other options should this siege fail.

And it wasn't likely that this attack would fail. Tessa had a leak bigger than anything someone as softhearted as her could possibly expect to predict.

She had some advantages on her side, having allied with these Demons and Gods that had arrived on Earth. But the details of her defensive plans had come straight to him.

He knew her AS placements. He knew where the psychics and Immortals were setting up to defend Kaname Chidori on the psychic plane. He'd known the layout of Meridia for months.

And his forces had multiple lambda-driver capable ASes and a handful of useful psychopaths.

The fleet he'd managed to sneak into the area from many vectors may have seemed like overkill, and he was certain Mithril knew at least some were there, but his contact would make sure to downplay the danger.

However, his sister had become a significant danger to his plans and Meridia needed to be dealt with now, or else the whole conflict would just be prolonged.

* * *

"Ready, Kaname?" Tessa asked the blue haired girl.

"Uhh, I think so," Kaname said next to the Whisper of Souls.

She was really starting to wonder just what the hell was so important about her that all this was necessary.

The Norns, with the exception of Skuld, Mara, Ranma, Eija, Deimosu, Persephone, some other Demons and Gods she didn't recognize and they were all standing around her at set spots.

"Everybody who needs to be out of the way is in the Labyrinth?" Tessa asked Ranma.

"Right," Ranma said.

Kaname wondered about the woman with the glasses and paper sticking out all over, but decided not to say anything.

"Kalinin, has the DaDanan reported itself in position yet?" Tessa asked over the intercom.

"The DaDanan is clear of the engagement area and in the appropriate place," he said.

Tessa sighed and then nodded.

_We have an answer,_ Tessa sent to Naiki. _Neither of you have anything to do there._

"Then, if you please, Kaname?" Tessa said with a smile as she directed Kaname to go into Whisper of Souls.

Hesitantly, Kaname stepped into the tube and leaned down, watching as everyone around her got ready.

And then the tube shut closed over her.

* * *

It was the whispers, she'd felt and seen this before. The same overwhelming flow of numbers, symbols and flooding information that was never much better than a barely tolerable swirl at best and a wash of mind numbing sensation driving her to contemplate self-destructive actions.

Eija black form and glowing red eyes appeared swiftly at her side as the whispers around her slowly became coherent and seperate. For her part, Kaname tried to move but felt herself tied down. The best she could describe it as was being in something like a roller-coaster ride set on a railroad.

Probably the process of the machine.

_I'm here, Kaname,_ Eija's form said. _It shall go well._

Kaname felt a sigh of relief at Eija's presence and let herself fall into the ride and sheltered from the mindscape.

As Kaname let the Whisper of Souls wrap her up in a shell of swirling information, something slashed out of the swirl of numbers and reached out toward the black form of Eija. At first she thought it was the ghost again, but it looked...nothing the same.

It had arms and a vague human female form with pale skin, but the legs twisted upwards into another form like a torso surrounded by arms and eyes.

Many, many eyes.

And mouths sewn shut, ripped off, hands covering them or simply erased from existence. All struggling pitifully and moving jerkily as if not moving of their own accord.

Another of the shapes curved around from behind Eija then, legs with its shoulders and one arm twisting off into the darkness.

All the particular component bodies were easily recognizable of a variety of ages and mostly similar appearances. Though there were a few that appeared completely different in look and shape now.

Eija dodged the second attack and called forth the blood red jian she had forged with Kaname's help to use against Poseidon.

_Is this all that they have to set forth as defense?_ a voice asked.

Eija stepped aside of a third form darting in from behind her. The newest tendril of merged bodies slammed ahead into one of the first two, which shuddered, free limbs flying as if in pain, the third tendril whipping about to finish merging completely with it.

_A black soul?_ the voice about her demanded.

Another couple of bodies erupted out of the unseen total of the mass the step forward wielding ribbons and clubs of fingers and hair.

_I am the Black Rose!_ the voice shouted. _Who dares come to me in this way._

_I am Eija Satomi,_ she said proudly. _I am Goddess of Blood and I will not let you hurt Kaname._

She reached out to feel the mass of screaming souls infesting the creature in front of her.

A keen rose up from the various mouths that first seemed to be Eija to be pain until it unified into a loud echoing sound.

_OHHHHHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOO!_ the thing howled. _!_

Eija stepped back dodging away but keeping herself between the attacking bodies and Kaname. She slashed out with her sword through one attack, the four tendrils of blood from her own weapon reaching out to interrupt others, but she wasn't inflicting any major damage.

The whole horrid mass of it was coming closer around Kaname and Eija then.

_No wonder that old ghost was so demanding of help_ the creature was declaring. _Do you seriously think I haven't faced a ghost whisperer before? Little 'Goddess'? These are living parts of me, not some dead ghosts for your amusement. It would take more than you to part them from me._

As the things almost playfully pushed Eija backward and moved to swallow up Kaname and Eija, she continued to cackle.

_This is the perfect time to end this all, these Ainur, this Whisper of Souls!_ she declared. _To hell with Leonard and his plans and promises, this planet and these lives are mine. Too bad you cannot join me, you won't get to share this immortality._

And then a circle of white light flared up around Eija and Kaname's shell. Two strong points on the edge connected through the middle by a line of energy. One of those two points flared brightly as a small sun, but the next crackled into a burst of lightning before forming into a humanoid form of crackling electricity.

_Ah, I see,_ Kodachi noted spitefully. _More of the spawn that redheaded tart begat out of my Darling's body._

_Mom's a bit busy right now,_ Deimosu said. _She sent us to deal with you._

_And you think this will be enough?_ Kodachi demanded.

_Actually,_ Eija said, as her soul flared brightly black before stretching out in two lines out from her.

One line stretched, moving from a sold, dependable and vibrant black toward a grey light of peace and determination that erupted into another miniature sun of radiant peaceful white light. The second line stretched outward from Eija shifting into a twisting line of green and brown swirling one on another in ever passing cycle.

Standing up from the white light Belldandy stepped forward bearing a long staff and from the green and brown stepped Persephone as a spear of wood shifting from living to dead held in her hand.

Around the triangle formed by them, another circle stretched out, encircling Kaname in now two lines of defense.

_We thought it might be a fair idea to have a few more on hand,_ Belldandy said.

And then four points erupted around the outside of the mass of Kodachi's consciousness.

Smoke flared up in one corner, coalescing into Mara's form while bones flared up at the next corner and Hel limped out into position, glancing cautiously toward where Eija and Persephone stood nearby. The earth erupted in the third corner as a dark-skinned Japanese woman, Kishimo-jin, Demoness of Children, took her place. And the fourth coalesced into another thunder bolt showing the half-Demon Goddess Urd.

A red circle of heavy power erupted alongside the outer edge of the conflict.

The mass of Kodachis stared about, two lines of defense ahead and a wall closing her in from the outside.

_Well, I am honored,_ she said before diving into her cacophonous laughter.

* * *

Ranma looked about as the various Gods and Demons settled into their trances except for the vaguely feline woman sitting her place and waiting eagerly for the chance to move in.

"Well, that's one trap," he said, looking toward Tessa.

"Yes, so it would appear," Tessa said, typing at a console. "Might I ask what the extra circles are for? They weren't part of the original design."

"No they weren't," Ranma said with a smile. "And those happen to be spirals."

* * *

Sousuke frowned in thought as the order to move to secondary positions came direct from Tessa over the com-link rather than over the radio, but didn't question it as he quietly moved the Arbalest into the declared position.

He was settling into the prepared position as the enemy showed itself coming up in a swarm of savages and supported by five of the new Shadows and two Venoms.

Immediately, a pair of rockets swarmed out toward each of the primary positions as the force pushed forward.

"And go!" Mao's voice called out.

Three M-9s opened up from their positions and tore through the mass of frog-like obsolete machines that had just found themselves the finger in the cigar slicer.

The Shadows rolled out of the way, only one taken out by the cross fire and two others damaged. As one stepped into cover and got ready to jump back into the fight, a pair of small forms leaped out of the brush onto it's back wielding smaller versions of the vibro blades carried by many ASes.

The two Sciroccos ripped into vital circuitry and parts, glowing the faint light many had associated with lambda-drivers to that point, only much weaker.

They leaped clear as one of the Venoms lashed out with a full lambda driver blast, only for that Venom to be cut cleanly in two as the Arbalest slammed down on top of it.

"Sgt Major, please be more careful," Sousuke noted as he moved to handle the next Venom, ducking fire from other enemies as he did so.

"Hey, this thing is faster than a grasshopper on speed," Mao called out. "No way this is going down. Focus on the plan."

As she spoke, an M-9 had a limb blown off by incoming reinforcements for the enemy.

Grimacing, Mao triggered the jump jet on her Scirocco and landed cleanly on the head of a savage, dropping an industrial charge into its chassis and leaping off before it exploded

Above them troop-carrying helicopters flew overhead.

"Incoming!"

* * *

Kalinin watched in the distance as explosions erupted everywhere across the island, though in the wrong places.

They were not using his positions.

Eyes started to dart toward each other in disbelief behind him as some of the people with him read the inexplicable message they were receiving.

He wasted no time in drawing his pistol and shooting the security around him before they could move to act themselves. The techs in the room stared at him in shock.

"I suggest you leave now," he said calmly to the unarmed men and women. "Knowing Tessa, those were the first orders she gave upon realizing I was her leak."

"Traitor!" one of the women called out, Tessa's receptionist.

She dived down for one of the guns and Kalinin didn't hesitate to shoot her immediately.

Tessa would blame herself, he realized, for the tactical necessity of not letting anybody know. Of course, the blame was so far beyond her that it was sad. Nobody could be blamed for the insanity this world drove them to.

Very reluctantly, the remaining techs left the command center to Kalinin.

The Mithril traitor set all the communications equipment to reboot and then took one of the P90s and shredded the machinery before leaving for his own escape route a little early.

* * *

"Command and telemetry just went out," Tessa said. "All units..."

Gunfire erupted outside her.

"That's sounding close," the feline Goddess noted.

"Yomiko, you're supposed to be my receptionist," Ranma said. "Receive."

"Already going, sir," Yomiko noted.

"All units, as you know, the pre-set plan is compromised," she said. "Objectives remain the same, Sciroccos move to reconnaissance and relay information and movements, do not engage unless necessary. Unit commanders operate under your own information."

"How many of those little jumper things do you have?" the Goddess asked.

"They designed one part by part, fabricated the pieces, put it together and programmed it over the course of three weeks in the backyard of a temple," Tessa said. "I gave them production facilities, technicians and a month. We have fifteen."

"Cat-lady!" Ranma sniped. "Pay attention, we have one more entity out there to wait for."

"You don't have to get into a tizzy over it," Bastet muttered.

Ranma watched Mara's body shudder.

* * *

"We've lost command feed from Meridia," a tech said calmly.

"Then move, that's our signal," Mardukas said. "I want to find these enemy attack platforms and remove them now."

* * *

Mara burst into smoke and ripped up around and over the attacking form of the thing she was fighting.

She'd never actually fought a devourer before, had only seen record of them in the histories on Nifelheim, and was currently glad this one apparently had no idea what she...it could do. With as many souls as she had, she shouldn't need a mainframe to engender category one power

When she reformed, she felt herself go down to one knee, a bit weakened by what was a barely avoided attack.

The surface of the devourer ahead of her rippled and a rush of arms reached out toward her. And then stopped with the keening cry of dozens of children's voices cascading in a ripple up the forms.

Urd zipped by and pulled Mara out of the path as Kishimo-Jin walked determinedly behind the three, psychic hand extended as she kept her eye on what Kodachi was doing.

Hel stood where the corner of the outer wall, the prison, sat immediately behind that of the walls about the shell where Kaname was.

Persephone, Eija and Belldandy held firm their defense ahead of the youngest of the group, here because every one of them agreed, reluctantly, that the Demoness of Prisons was necessary to hold the outer walls firm.

A mass of arms and legs like a flood pushed into Belldandy's corner, threatening to shove her back as Urd, Kishimo-jin and Mara moved back into position. More articulate hands slipped out, wielding by cackling faces and holding weapons of psychic potential.

Persephone's spear lashed out through the outcropping as Eija walked up onto the shaft and slashed her jian and its own four flaying tendrils into mass, cutting off most of the attack on Eija.

Belldandy caught her breath as the fallen pieces of Kodachi dropped and were recollected back into the central portion as a renewed attack lashed out gripping the leg of Eija's black soul and started to pull her off into the mass.

The middle Norn whipped out with her own staff as Persephone reached out and the attacking portions were withered in pain and agony for six full seconds.

Eija came back to her feet in time to cover Persephone with Belldandy's help.

Ranma lacked the psychic ability to reach the mindscape, but was practiced in exorcism herself, and the small sun that seemed to represent her will in present rotated around Deimosu's form like a moon with free mind.

They were the circle that could rotate about within the bounds of the other two. Eija, Belldandy and Persephone had to remain around Kaname's cocoon and Hel. The Demons and Urd had to remain on the outside and maintain the wall.

Hel focused on keeping the four point demonic circle stable. Alone it would have been difficult. Demonic circles were inefficiently powerful, wasting a lot of energy if they had anything like enough. In addition the opposite points tore apart from each other over time.

Maintaining one of this power so long was difficult.

The Asgardians made it possible.

Persephone, Belldandy and Eija held Hel firmly within their three point circle. They were in easy position to support each other and acted as a buffer against Mara's point pulling at Hel's.

Meanwhile, Urd, half-Demon, and Kishimo-jin, an Asgard-trained Demoness, knew how to support each other instead of in opposition without breaking the rhythm of a four point circle.

Deimmosu and his mother made full use of the flexibility and adaptability of a two point circle, rotating around and through the uncoordinated mass of Kodachi's spiritual form.

Hel had one other job.

And as a silent, still form wrapped in crystal started to form past their barriers against Kodachi she called out.

"It's here!"

Another point of light erupted in the field of battle and golden lines lashed out like a cat's tails to connect with Belldandy and Urd, and then on to Mara and Kishimo-Jin.

It wasn't a true five point circle, it was two three point circles with Urd forming a point on both circles. With Mara as the only one without much experience in three point circles, she presented a weak link, but they served their purpose.

Kodachi was forcibly separated from Kaname.

Sophia, meanwhile found herself materializing near Kaname as three strong death seers activated a new circle specifically around her.

_It's time to go home,_ Persephone told the suddenly concerned ghost.

* * *

"Three Venoms sighted at sector A-3!" Mao called out. "Sousuke, get to position."

"Flank weakening here," another Scirocco pilot said.

"This is PRT unit 3 here," another radio noted. "We shot down one of the troops carriers, but we could use some help."

"Two Sciroccos, go!" Mao called out.

Sousuke listened to the chatter with one ear, but focused his thoughts on that night with the setting sun and the comfort he felt just sitting with Kaname and Eija as he moved toward the enemy lambdha-drivers."

Sousuke slashed down into the middle of the three as they collapsed a unit inward.

"Give me everything you got, Al," he shouted.

"Affirmative, Sgt Sagara," the AI noted.

Sousuke blew one of the Venoms away before he could direct its lambdha-enhanced chi energy toward blocking him. Then the second pushed in and he raised a block that the enemy's attack pushed into, sending him spinning backwards over his ASs feet, lambdha-driver battle aura preventing major damage and letting him roll up to his feet in time to focus a block on another incoming blast.

* * *

Amalgam's soldiers moved from position, trying to crumple the stiff resistance of the PRT teams inward. Ahead of one group, two young women charged forward with dead and determined expressions.

They dodged from cover to cover, avoiding gunfire bursts before leaping over one barricade to bring down a lethal steel on the surprised soldiers in the position.

And then a burst of wind shoved them out of the way into the backfield, out of the line of fire where Amalgam could support them.

They returned to their feet to find themselves staring across at a tall, grim looking woman carrying a rugbeater. She had one arm, though the one shoulder looked like it was modified to handle an advanced prosthetic.

"Don't think the lack of my mechanical arm is going easy on you," Natsume said coolly. "It is fine for normal use, but it gets in the way on the field."

Yu Lan and Yu Fan exchanged a look and charged forward, swing their blades in at Natsume who almost casually, side stepped one and blocked the next, sending them sprawling head over heels.

They broke off as they returned to their feet and arched in, moving and coordinating as naturally as breathing.

Natsume didn't bother making any outward sign of watching them as Yu Fan tried to draw her attention. She merely stepped back into a donkey kick to catch Yu Lan in the teeth and then pushed off the grounded foot to flip in the air to pass over Yu Fan.

The two sisters nearly slammed into each other, Yu Fan's knife leading.

And then a gust of wind slammed them against the wall of one of the buildings.

"Your coordination is good," she said. "But I've seen it before, and better."

* * *

The enemies pressing on the hangar with the Gods, Demons and others was a heavy push of attack, with the PRTs around it finding themselves facing attack almost on all sides and the frequent strafing runs of dueling helicopters, theirs and the enemies.

One helicopter came on an attack vector as most of the soldiers scattered for cover and only a single woman apparently dressed as a librarian stood in the way.

"Crazy secretary," the pilot muttered as she pushed up her glasses on to her face.

And then his view screen was filled with paper.

"What the hell is this?"

From the outside, people watch as paper caked over the outer body of the helicopter, stopping the rotors cold and sending hurtling down into a cluster of Amalgam soldiers, still maintaining its basic shape. Immediately after it crashed, however, the entire paper-covered helicopter was crushed inward as if into a giant ball of paper, the small sounds and bursts of smoke of violent explosions unable to get out carried even through the gun play, and then the paper pulled away.

A rattling sound of automatic gunfire careened toward Yomiko's position as she raised a wall of paper around herself, though still catching one bullet scoring across her leg.

Spreading out the paper she had, she laid cover for herself and the Mithril soldiers to fall back to the hangar and found herself limping inside.

"Visitors coming, sir," she said. "I'm finding them rather persistent."

"Yeah," Ranma said. "I kind of expected that. Watch where you stand."

Tessa frowned and looked as the martial artist reached for one of the lines connecting the extra circles.

"Stay in the center, Captain," Ranma said.

The chi spiraled outward and erupted into an almost self-sustaining wall of swirling wind that tore the building apart all around them and left them safe and secure inside.

Beyond, in the first ripping explosion of tornadoes, several black sickle blades lashed outward cutting into the Amalgam troops closing in on either side.

"Wait, you can do that and the exorcism?" Tessa asked.

"Yeah, someone told me I couldn't," Ranma noted with a shrug as he turned his attention back to the flow of energies in the exorcism.

* * *

"Damage report, Al," Sousuke shouted.

"Right arm at 82% ability, left knee at 76% mobility," the AI said. "Lamdha-driver reaching critical over heating due to coolant system damage. Torso armor at 65% coverage. Targeting system malfunctioning, accuracy suffering estimated 12% error."

Sousuke grimaced and put down another Savage that tried to get in his way.

"Shut down lamdha driver, Sergeant Sagara?" the AI asked.

"Not yet," Sousuke said.

"As you wish," Al said.

Three of the Shadows charged him and took shots at unusual targets, understanding the weaknesses of the lamdha driver apparently, but finding nothing substantial to exploit in Sousuke's defense.

"Venom at five o'clock," Al noted.

Sousuke grimaced as he raised a barrier that cracked as the enemy projectile struck it and the Arbalest lost a knee, sending Sousuke sprawling.

"Overheat imminent," Al said calmly.

"Shut off lamdha driver," Sousuke said, breathing a sigh of relief as the heat levels dropped off immediately.

Sensing a weakened pray, the Shadows pushed in and were surprised as the Arblest pushed itself up on it's left arm, pushing into the air and slashing around with its knife to take out all three and then toss the knife toward the prematurely relaxing Venom, penetrating through the cockpit to kill the pilot within.

"More enemy detected," Al said. "Recommend evacuation."

"Can't do that, Al!" he shouted, rolling his AS over to the down Venom to recover his knife and picking up a new gun. "Tell me when we can restart the lamdha driver.

He fired toward the oncoming next wave and then blinked as a small shape jumped up to the top of the rear AS of the formation.

Inside Mao, rapidly typed out commands and then put her hands back in the holsters before landing on the shoulders of a Shadow and destroying the head before hopping to the next in line.

She'd taken out three before a shot clipped her AS suit, sending hurtling into the brush, only kept from falling completely apart as the chi enhancers built in protected it.

"Damn it," Mao shouted over the intercom. "That's it, this AS is done."

* * *

Leonard scowled at the tactical situation. This was going to be a lot more costly than he had originally thought it would. Apparently, Tessa had anticipated his acquiring the battle plans somehow. Well, she always was clever.

However, Meridia was one base and Mithril hadn't been convinced it needed reinforcing for this action. He was attacking with overwhelming force.

The outcome was predetermined. There was no way that Tessa could hold out to protect Kaname long enough for the reported duration of two hours.

"One of the transports just sank!" someone shouted.

"Struck by cruise missile, probably," Leonard said. "Of course the DaDanan isn't where it should be. Which wave?"

"Third," the tech reported.

"She's targeting the reinforcements," Leonard decided. "Triangulate position with the next two she kills."

"A...Aye, sir," the tech said.

* * *

Naiki leaped out of the water and landed on the rear of one of the last ships in the small fleet that had gathered for this action.

Several of the sailors immediately turned guns toward her, but nothing enough to worry her.

"You know, spells aren't supposed to work," Naiki said. "But I actually KNOW this girl, so I think I have a pretty good chance to find her in the network. And what the hell, she can't be any more annoying than she is."

As the bullets, annoying as they were to Naiki, pelted her, she raised her hands high and gave a sharp toothed smile.

"Monster of the Norse Deeps!"

* * *

"She's casting my spell again!" Lusca shouted outloud in the middle of Akihabara. "SQUEEEEE!"

"Uhhh," Shinji said.

"What is that girl babbling about?" Issei asked.

"Wait.." Lusca said stopping suddenly. "Wait...no..no...no! She had Miss Geisthexe helping her last time! Let's see...Nidhog down I can't...but...she shouldn't have even been able...I have to try!"

"Try what?" Kyoko asked.

"Naiki Satomi, Demoness of Torrent, I call in a favor! Come spend the rest of the day with me!"

* * *

Leonard stepped out of the bridge and looked back toward the rear of his fleet. He watched as several massive tentacles rose up out of the water and reached out to crush one of his ships, tearing it apart and tossing the debris outward into several other ships, severely damaging them as well.

And then the tentacles dissolved into water almost as quickly as they appeared.

* * *

Naiki stumbled about, knees shaking heavily as she shook her head and gasped. It felt very much like she'd just trained herself into the floor. Everything felt sore and dried out.

And somehow, she was in the middle of Tokyo.

"Naiki, how'd you get here?" Kyoko gasped as she inexpertly limped over with her cane, almost hopping.

"I...don't..." she said gasping before she fell back to the ground.

And then Lusca was rushing to her side with a large armful of bottled water.

"I called in a favor," Lusca said. "But you still owe me one after that."

"Isn't...that...impossible righ..." Naiki groaned and took a heavy slug of the water bottles that Kyoko and Lusca were forcing on her.

"Yeah, Nidhog is up," Lusca said. "But I didn't feel it. Not funny. Not at all funny."

* * *

"ASW aircraft over our position!" a tech called out. "Splashes!"

"Brace for impact," Mardukas called out.

The depth charges slipped down into the water and shook the DaDanan.

"They've got to be kidding," a tech said. "We fought Poseidon."

"Depth Charge can still kill us, gentlemen," Mardukas said calmly. "Now, I believe this sub, unlike others, does have some anti-aircraft capability that doesn't require surfacing."

"Yes, sir," a tech noted.

"Deploy it," Mardukas said.

* * *

"We've got a steady signal in morse code being dispatched from the target," the comm tech.

"Secured channel?" he asked.

"No," the comm tech said. "Decoding now..."

The tech paused and frowned in confusion.

"What's it say?" Leonard asked.

"You're playing the wrong chessboard, brother." the tech said.

"What does she mean by that."

* * *

"All right!" Skuld called out. "Done here!"

"Looks good on my end too," Megumi said.

"Done!" Yaku declared pushing one final button.

"Finished here as well," Sarah said. "Starting up in fifteen..."

"So we can connect, but what about everyone outside the dimension?" Keiichi asked.

"That's what I'm here for," Yonjuu said.

"And Silmaril is active," Sarah said.

In a moment, the various Ainur across the Labyrinth felt themselves running through rapid fire, personal equations and number manipulations.

Once it hit Yonjuu, the connection flooded down into the World.

* * *

Ranma watched as Deimosu shuddered thinking it was another attack, but then blinking as a series of numbers rolled out of his mouth and the Ainur marks flared.

Tessa was next.

And it flooded outward from there.

"And that is checkmate," Tessa noted as her marks flared and her reciting stopped. "This is probably the easiest using Silmaril will ever be the next few minutes...use it."

Ranma was about to say something when he noticed a fluctuation in the intense fields of Mana and instantly worked to stop it.

From across all over, shrapnel slashed out at the meditating Gods and Demons as well as the resting soldiers and others. Paper stopped some, Tessa reaching out by borrowing Nimu's telekinesis stopped others and Ranma's chi manipulation caused still others to flitter out.

Only one fragment found its target.

And everyone could only watch as the one struck slumped forward.

* * *

Sousuke gasped as felt the Silmaril contact flood over him, empowering him tremendously.

And for a brief moment, he had contact with several minds and their abilities. It would never be so easy again, but for now.

Amalgam's troops hesitated as they watched the Arbalest stand up and draw pieces from the battle-field to come to full repair and combat readiness with a brilliant glowing corona of an aura.

* * *

The power within the circles flared suddenly as the Silmaril went active and flooded power through the circle that harassed and tore into Kodachi pushing at her in bits and pieces.

_This is your move, Kishi!_ Bastet shouted. _It doesn't matter how much we do on this end, she's too spread out to kill solely from a spiritual end without at least three full powered category ones who know what they're doing!_

_Get ready,_ Kishimo-jin said. _Truce-killer! Pull back and pay attention, you're going to want to send what you hear to your friend._

_I've got her,_ Deimosu snapped.

_You've got her held,_ Mara said, leaning on Belldandy. _We need her dead, and the best way to do that is at the body._

_You really think that you can kill me!_ Kodachi shouted out of many mouths. _How demeaning and insulting, to be threatened by such ants!_

_Back off,_ Kishimo-jin shouted.

Grimacing, Deimosu stepped back, releasing his hold slightly on Kodachi.

_You never said exactly what you were going to do,_ Bastet noted.

Kishimo-jin smiled at her and leaped into the morass of Kodachi's flaying bodies, being torn apart as everyone stared at her.

And then Kodachi screamed the cries of children killed, not just her own and others, but those killed over thousands of years by another who had once been a monster and now regretted it.

And those screams carried with them...places.

* * *

"Got it," Yonjuu said.

More than a dozen Ainur, borrowing Shichimu's powers, keyed in on different locations across the Earth and other worlds.

"Let's go skin a baby-killer," Mariko said coldly.

"Gladly," Kurz noted.

* * *

"Whoa!" Shepard said. "Talk about an Info dump. McKay."

"Yeah, yeah, working on it!" he shouted.

"Everyone get your targets and go!" O'Neil said.

* * *

Sophia found herself lying in the examination room where she'd died so long ago, the doctors standing over her and cried out, sitting up.

_What is going on here!_ she demanded as the doctors scattered from her into dust and she saw three figures standing around her.

_It's time give up this,_ Persephone said.

_I'm not simply going to drive you off this time,_ Eija added calmly. _It's time for you to go._

_I don't want to go!_ Sophia demanded. _I don't deserve to go! Do you know what they did to me? _

_We watched, _Persephone said stepping forward._ It was terrible, so many terrible things done to one who should have been treasured. _

_Oh, I was treasured, _Sophia snapped._ I was treasured, I was treasured as a research subject, do you know what it feels like to be a... _

_Sacrifice? _Eija asked._ I have nearly suffered the very same fate. _

_An object? _Persephone added._ Yes. I have suffered such at the hands of my husband's own brother. _

Hel limped forward quietly and Sophia looked toward her hatefully.

_And what about you, do you think you've suffered as much as me? _Sophia demanded.

_I was literally thrown into hell, _Hel noted._ Why do you think it was named for me? _

_They have to pay! _Sophia shouted.

_That doesn't work! _Hel shouted._ I tried that and just killed someone else who didn't do anything to me. _

_This isn't your world anymore, _Eija said coolly._ We could seal you up, trap you for a time, but it wouldn't help. _

_But I can come back if I take a body! _Sophia said._ I can live again. _

_At the cost of another life, _Eija said firmly._ A life you can't have. _

_Life comes again, child, _Persephone said._ You'll have another chance at life again. _

_Can you guarantee that? _Sophia demanded.

_Yes, _Persephone said stepping forward and taking the other woman's hand._ And I can show you the way. _

_What? _Eija asked._ Grandmother? _

_Mrs. Dispater? _Hel asked.

_I'm sorry,_ Eija, Persephone_ said. But I need to go to. _

_Why? _Eija demanded._ Did Kodachi? _

_It isn't important right now, Eija, _the Iron Queen said,_ turning toward Sophia. I have lived millions of years, childe. And now it is over. Will you come with me to this next life? _

_Sophia looked up with confusion at the woman in front of her. _

_Will it stop hurting there? _

_Hasn't it already? _Persephone asked._ You'll find record of my affairs in the Norns' home, Eija. _

_But, Grandma, we just met, _Eija said.

_Everybody needs to go in their own time, _Persephone said as she walked off into something neither Eija nor Hel could see.

Rapt expressions covered both her and Sophia expressions and then everything faded and they were in the mindscape as Kishimo-jin was being torn apart and Kodachi was screaming, with none of witnesses being able to do anything about it.

But Eija's red eyes had sight for only one thing. And she heard nothing else.

A form she'd only seen in images and reports.

Hecate, standing in the place where Persephone's spirit had stood.

_You always were too weak, mother, _Hecate said.

Even the part of Kodachi not caught in Kishimojin's last spell paused as the entire surrounding mindscape turned red.

Hecate felt...actually felt...Eija's jian slash through her, trailing a wave of red blood that swirled up in an ocean to rip her to pieces.

The ghost reformed immediately behind Eija and the wave of blood washed around Hecate's daughter and slammed her ghostly body into the floor which opened up to pull her down while Eija stood, as if it were a floor for the living Goddess and a clogging ocean of quicksand for Hecate.

_Is nothing enough for you? _Eija shouted._ Do you? Are you amused by this? Are we just ants? Do you wish to drown in blood? Will I can do that for you! _

In the distraction, Kodachi's spirit fled through the gap that had formed. It still screamed and still carried pieces of Kishimo-jin with it, though Kodachi could not assimilate the Demoness.

Belldandy fell back, he grip on the Asgardian Demoness's hand lost and the woman ripped away as the monster they were fighting fled away and the others turned their attentions to see Hecate struggling to climb up to the surface of the ever reaching swirls of blood that funneled around Eija.

She tried to say something but found her mouth filled with blood such that it pushed into her and out through the eyes and pores, adding to the quantity that dragged her further downward.

The ghost started to reach toward the shocked and startled Hel, but Eija coolly walked into her path and stood in the way.

_No more! Hecate! she shouted. You don't get to bath in anymore blood! No more sacrifice! No more pain! Drown! DROWN! _

Hecate disappeared angrily down into the whirling blood which calmed only slowly as Eija took a breath and slumped to her knees.

* * *

Ranma watched Eija come out of her meditation and start crying out loudly to the sky, tears flowing freely. With the battle ended and other people waking up as well, she didn't hesitate to move to Eija's side and hold her tightly.

* * *

Kodachi, one of several came back to her body, still reeling and hearing those awful screams in her head. She barely had any control of her limbs or even thoughts at the moment. It was as if her entire being was in rebellion.

A door slammed open and feet came into the room with her as she struggled to rise to some sort of defense.

A figure moved to squat in front of her and lift her face up.

"Hey, Doc," O'Neil said seriously. "Sorry this took so long."

"That woman is..."

O'Neil pulled the trigger on his pistol.

Around him his team was killing the other flailing and incapable Kodachis in the room.

* * *

Mariko kneeled in the center of several more bodies that the monster had inhabited. She tenderly arranged the bodies of the women she had just killed and sniffed, fighting against more tears coming.

* * *

Kurz Weber walked past the dead bodies of the woman's minions that he had killed in a spray of automatic fire as soon as he'd arrived.

"You don't really expect to kill all of me, do you?" Kodachi asked, pained. "I'm regaining control now."

"You know, Shichimu's still alive sort of," Kurz said. "She's sort of letting us borrow something of hers right now."

He shot the woman.

"She's looking back at you through us," Kurz said.

* * *

Kodachi crawled back away from Nimu, feeling some sense of control returning to her as she vaguely registered various other bodies being burned, shot, electrocuted, poisoned and more. It seemed that, even if those of her escaped children weren't in the fight, most, probably all of their powers were.

"There is still more of me than all of you can attack at once," Kodachi said. "When this damn curse is done, I shall merely start over."

"Mother," Nimu said. "For the next little while, I'm a telekinetic with the power to see any place one of your bodies is."

"Ah," the creature said.

Blades rose up behind Nimu as Kodachi watched across every body that didn't have direct attackers. Paralyzed by the anguished cries of those that she had taken and revealed by the eyes of one of her daughters, she was about to be killed finally by yet another.

And what Nimu couldn't do herself, Kurz and others borrowing her ability filled in the gap.

"Yes," Kodachi noted. "That would do it."

And the blades slammed into her from all sides in all places.

* * *

Kalinin heard the destruction going on above and assumed that the inevitable overwhelming of the forces of Meridia was well underway.

He was down into the empty docks looking for a particular boat to commandeer and leave with.

"Going somewhere?" a woman's voice asked.

Kalinin looked to see Kali walking out of a cloth tablecloth.

"Don't bother with the guns," Kali said. "I'm a war goddess, bulletproof."

"I suppose this is where I surrender then?" Kalinin asked.

"That would be the most convenient," Kali said.

"Convenient," he said idly. "Well, I would rather be facing young Satomi so my words could be conveyed directly to the Captain, but I suppose you'll have to do."

"And what words are those?" Kali asked.

"It's not her fault," he said. "The world is to blame."

And then he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

Kali watched his body fall to the ground and sighed.

* * *

"We've lost contact with ASW," a tech noted. "And we're getting reports from the Island, all units being decimated."

"Probably by a handful of people," Leonard said. "Take us out of the engagement area, quickly."

He frowned toward the retreating horizon and crossed his arms.

"Wrong chessboard indeed, sister," he said. "You know you couldn't hold. You used Chidori to draw me out and ran your own timetable with your Silmaril activation. Made me think I had another hour and half than I did."

He shook his head, it was more than that. Even if Kaname had ascended, he could still have used her via his own version of Tessa's Whisper of Souls.

Now, everything was a waste, and he was sure to lose his connections via Amalgam over this. Though that was less than worrisome given their losses here. They pretty much only had Gates left for operatives.

No, he was going to have to go on his own now.

* * *

Kaname woke up with tears flowing down her eyes as she felt Eija's sorrow hit her full force. And the first thing she did on getting out was to push through the soldiers to find Eija in a make shift infirmary.

Sousuke appeared at nearly the same time, following word and instinct that Eija was upset.

Eija Kaname asked, cautiously moving forward.

"Eija...chan," Sousuke tried experimentally, seeming to remember that the appellation calmed down some girls.

Tired and feeling drained, Eija stood up stiffly and walked over to the other two, grabbing their hands, one each and pulling them to her.

Kaname was relieved she wasn't seeing with her full death sight just at the moment.

Eija stared at the hands for a long moment and then leaned into both of the two Ainur, descending into quiet, wrenching sobs. She was far too tired to continue wailing.

Ranma looked on as Sousuke and Kaname each tried to comfort her daughter in their own way.

* * *

Omake by AYH:

*Compound surrounded, beginning operation*

Tucking his radio back into his pocket, the mercenary began to silently move forward. Before him was a small villa encircled by ripe vineyards, their dark green leaves in full health signifying the promise of a rich crop. Maneuvering through the row, he and several others like him began to close their net around the main structure. Amalgam had wanted more refugees and according to the latest Intel, the building before them should have had at least a dozen more for 'pickup'.

Surveillance around the area was sparse at best, and by the look of it, security was non-existent as many young children and a handful of adults tried to still come to terms with their new reality.

* * *

Tapping his I-pad, a young man of Mediterranean decent frowned ever so slightly as he considered various locations scattered across the globe.

"Agathe, update the list of survivors from the last contact we made via the shrine network and inform me if any word of Athena, Hestia, or Prometheus has been heard. Also summarize any new developments in Earth based movements and if any of the other centers have started to make progress as to our next course of action," he calmly stated, addressing a young woman also of Mediterranean decent off to his side.

Since the disappearance of the Yggdrasil, all the normal channels of communication had been cut off. And the lack of power also meant that nearly all shrines across the world had gone dead, becoming simple structures of wood or stone. Nearly. Several had been imbued over the long centuries by various gods and goddesses as centers of their faith and worship. They had acted as secondary homes, Earthly retreats, and in some cases, emergency shelters when the actions of a deity had gotten them a bit too much attention in Asgard. Many of those shrines had links to others, like individual computers connected via an old LAN line. By contacting one shrine, one could possibly gain access to another and another, provided the local god empowering that shrine hadn't become a casualty of the war.

It was a slow and arduous process to slowly connect a rudimentary web of shrines, but it was better than going blind, and could potentially provide more information than just relying solely on satellite news.

"Dionysus, this simply has to stop."

Without looking up, the Greek god of the grape harvest and wine sat behind his desk and continued to work, his actions indicating his opinion on the importance of the particular individual addressing him.

Undeterred, Locotorp a minor system admin stood his ground as he made his case. "You should stop this foolishness at once. We need to find a much more isolated location to lay dormant and allow the All Father to sort out this mess. Once we receive word, we need to be ready to assist in the rebuilding of Asgard. What will He think if He found out that you have been wasting valuable resources and mana in this personal search of yours?"

After all, things were chaotic enough as they were, but this trolling through out-dated networks was a strain on already depleted mana supplies. How long was the drunken fool going to search for beings that had obviously already gone into hibernation? The fact that his current host was not in the least bit inebriated went unacknowledged for the moment.

"Not only that, but your harem of bimbos have been flittering about non-stop since we got here without a word of greeting or any show of hospitality. Even worse they keep turning the TV's back to those horrid shows about war and kidnapping, it's scaring the children! You can be sure that All Father will be informed of your reckless corruption and terrorizing of innocent minds."

Indeed, when he and 16 other gods of various ages had filtered into the villa, he had found himself quickly registered by one of the many business suited women, show the amenities, given a dossier on general house rules, and then largely ignored as they needlessly went about briskly from one insipid task to another rather than preparing a site for hibernation and ensuring the comfort of everyone involved. One even hogged the television all day taking notes on those awful human images of what passed as 'news' down in Midgard. It simply wasn't a healthy environment for so many displaced and confused godlings.

"I understand your frustration, but as we are currently in a state of emer — "

"NO! We are not!" Leaning in as if explaining something to a small child, Locotorp glared at the seated god. "This wasn't funny the first time, and it has certainly worn itself out now. We have clear directions as to what must be done should any systems experience widespread shutdown. Evacuations should be carried out of the surrounding areas, shelters are to be sought out, and procedures are to be followed. You are the only one going against the All Fathers will; YOU are the only one whipping up small children and panicked system staff into this frenzy with your apocalyptic rhetoric. Unless you want to answer for all your current actions once things return back to normal I suggest you cease your —"

Anything else Locotorp may have wanted to say was lost as the villa was suddenly rocked by a powerful explosion.

Struggling to get back to his feet, Locotorp suddenly found his vision filled with smoke as screams began to fill the air along with the sound of sporadic gun fire. Tumbling towards a window to see what was happening, the dazed admin found himself looking at an approaching AS, disabling its camouflage it lumbered towards the villa.

Or did, before the ground beneath its feet suddenly turned into soft tilled soil, causing the metal beast to sink into the ground and become entrapped as various ivy and grape vines entangled it and a RPG took out its cockpit.

Staggering out of the office, he saw numerous gods and goddesses being herded into the basement by a portion of Dionysus's staff, their efficient actions keeping the mass of bodies moving. In addition to their usual business attire though, several had acquired human weapons and arms, and were beginning to return fire to a small force of advancing humans.

Staring in disbelief, the confused god was suddenly tackled to the ground as a spray of bullets erupted overhead. Looking at his rescuer, he saw another woman take a small flask from her pocket and quickly take a drink. The change was almost instant as once there was an olive skinned woman with dark raven hair wrapped up in a tight bun dressed, now stood a snarling and blood shot eyed furious humanoid beast.

With a savage cry it leapt towards the center of the crowd of advancing soldiers, tearing at anything coming within arm's length. And neither was she alone as several other women had joined her, with the rest providing covering support.

The wild women were quickly shot at, but they proved to be much more resilient than they appeared. Bullets peppered one, but she merely shrugged them off and charged straight for her attacker.

Suddenly though, every invading soldier suddenly began to stagger and fall, some of them vomiting violently into their face masks. Guns were dropped and many were quickly restrained by the now victorious home forces. The maenads, now in full frenzy, lost interest in their fallen prey, and in berserker fury turned towards their former allies and sisters but stopped as they sensed a familiar presence.

Striding in, Dionysus surveyed the area. A short chant and the maenads calmed many of them beginning to fall before being caught by others and their wounds treated. Seeing no further threats, the Greek god inspected the various humans now on the ground unconscious.

"Wha, bu-u-ut, what?" Stuttering, Locotorp was still trying to make sense of the last few minutes.

"I got the idea from a minister back in the 1800's," Dionysus replied as he stooped down to pick up one of the soldiers. "The human body is about 70% water. It's just a simple matter for me to convert a small portion of that to wine. These men should be out for several hours at the least, and most will require liver transplants afterwards."

"Sinthar," he called out, as a pale blonde woman rushed to his side, "gather everyone and prepare for transport. We're leaving to another safe house until we can find something more permanent."

Seeing the young woman quickly leave, the admin god found Dionysus now facing him. "As I was saying before, I understand your frustration, but we are currently in a state of emergency. We would very much appreciate it if you please calm down until further measures can be worked out."


	41. Smiting Privileges

Tessa strode into the infirmary and came up to where Mara was lying down.

"Excuse me, Doctor, but how is she?" she asked immediately of the two people standing over the unconscious woman.

"Everyone that was in those circles is experiencing varied levels of internal bleeding," Dr. Goldberry said. "The Japanese woman...Demon, died of a brain aneurysm. Miss Geisthexe is the next most serious case, but she should be fine according to our guests. I'm only a little bit familiar with their anatomy still."

"Is there at all a chance that she might wake up for a bit," the Captain asked regretfully.

"We could," Dr. Goldberry said. "But I'd really suggest she get her sleep. We were expecting to have more help. But most of those that have their version of medical training..."

Dr. Goldberry turned and glanced toward Eija Satomi in her own bed at Kaname and Sousuke's insistence. Then over toward Urd and Belldandy who were sitting and being looked over by a human doctor who was checking lecture notes as he did so.

"You realize each species and cross-species has slightly different needs from the others," the doctor said. "On the surface, they require the same basic things as us and each other. But there are things that are perfectly normal for Demons that seem to mean catastrophic failure in a God, and their are chemicals we can handle that a Demon can't. And then there are the half-Gods and half-Demons. And Ainur are not human, Captain."

"Physically speaking," Tessa noted.

"Socially and Emotionally speaking," the Doctor continued off her comment. "We're all 'human' from the looks of it. Cultural Assimilation apparently. Funny, you'd think it was us assimilating to the way they did things, not the other way around. But the Ainur have a slightly different blood chemistry, missing some glands, have new versions of others."

"Are there any potentially lethal differences between an Ainur and a human?" Tessa asked.

"It all depends on the circumstances," the doctor said. "Lots of things can be lethally different when the circumstances are wrong."

Tessa nodded and then sighed.

"Send for me when she wakes up," Tessa said and looked over the scene to find Ranma looking about from bed to bed, helping as she did but still looking.

Tessa considered this and glanced toward where Eija was sitting again before looking over toward where Deimosu sat.

"Director Satomi."

The redhead looked up and then walked over, she was still dressed in the black tactical gear she had worn for the attack.

"Is something wrong?" Tessa asked. "You seem distressed, but I've already told you that Naiki is with Miss Kraken and your other two children are here..."

"I was actually looking for..." Ranma hesitated. "Has Sergeant Major Mao reported in yet?"

"Melissa?" Tessa said blinking. "She's still in the field on defensive patrol. Is there something you need her for?"

"Ahh, no," Ranma said. "Just...checking."

"Wasn't aware that you and Melissa were seeing each other," the Captain said with a small quiet smile as she leaned forward.

"Since a little after the Psyche meeting," Ranma said, scratching the back of her head. "I don't suppose...wait, no comment about..."

She pointed toward her body.

"I'm assuming that your dating Melissa in your other...outfit," Tessa noted with a twinkle.

"How do you know about..." Ranma frowned. "Naiki...now I know how Mara feels. She hasn't forgotten that then?"

"Assuming you haven't actually shown her yet," Tessa said. "I'm sure it's left conscious thought. However, I'm sorry to say that I came here with other matters on my mind."

"I have Yomiko making contact with her people on the Nidhog thing," Ranma said. "She had plans in place ready to go, just in case."

"I thought she might," Tessa said with relief. "Which only leaves the issue of Naiki's favors. And how to handle that."

Ranma glanced over toward Kaname.

"So, now that she's with you," Ranma said. "You going to ask her to represent you?"

"Unfortunately, Director Satomi," Tessa said with a playful smirk. "You've done a fairly good job at that so far. Psyche and Mithril would like to ask you to continue as such."

"Oh joy and rapture," the redhead said.

"On that matter, Director Satomi," Tessa noted. "The matter of your inability to become one of us, have you had any chance to find an answer to that?"

"I've had a few other things on my mind," Ranma noted. "Some theories, but nothing I've tested really."

"Might I ask," Tessa said. "I've checked some of Psyche's files, you have quite a few more exposure-based abilities than most. Is that a possible connection."

"Yeah, one of the theories," Ranma said, nodding. "Now I got some stuff to take care of..."

"All right, Director," Tessa said, nodding and giving a polite bow as she moved out of Ranma's way.

The redhead moved on out the door, probably to head for one of the other hospital rooms and her secretary. A morose thought crossed Tessa's mind for a moment and then she caught sight of a simple door.

The door to the morgue.

Her secretary.

Persephone DisPater.

Kishimo-jin.

And a multitude of other people that had taken up their positions on her say so.

And not one of them had asked why Tessa hadn't set up for Kaname to ascend in the Labyrinth.

Tessa wondered what she looked like to Kali and Eija's eyes for a moment. And then she forced herself to look away from the door and head over toward another painful situation.

Talking to Kaname, Sousuke and Eija.

* * *

"We have all the element permissions fixed," Athena noted. "Everyone here is granted appropriate levels of power. As soon as Yggdrasil comes back on line we can start analyzing the data to find out who else to give access to."

Peorth nodded and looked over the control stations thoughtfully.

There was no way for her to know what was happening on Earth or in Asgard. She couldn't know where they stood as compared to their enemies except for the fact that, as far as warriors were concerned, they were outnumbered and, in a way, out equipped.

"If we hesitate too long," Athena reminded her. "We'll drift out of reach of Earth. We have no idea where Kami-Sama put us. And we can't control the drift without category 1 powers."

She knew that as well.

"Okay," Peorth said. "Tell Lind and the others, we're starting Yggdrasil back up."

* * *

Mara was unconscious and recovering, but her plans moved on as soon as word came down the line that Nidhog was active. Dozens, if not hundreds of Demons in various places reached out their hands to call up the summoned consoles that had been unavailable for months and started to work coding.

"I'm in the element logs," one of the Demons said. "Getting a list of who's getting what permissions. It's barely operating, looks like some just started the activation process and didn't finish it."

"Thank you," Tutivillus said, moving to beside the man. "That should give us a list of who our...oh dear."

Several people walked over to see what had caught the Demon clerk's attention and saw it immediately as the screen scrolled down a list of elements no longer active.

"That's all of them," someone said. "Every single death seer and life giver left in Nifelheim..."

In the middle of the greyed out list of names stood one that was still active, afforded mere category 3 permissions, the lowest that the system would allow.

Hel, Demoness of Prisons, Category 3 according to the list.

"He'll have his eye fixed," someone noted quietly.

"It took him thousands of years and thousands of lives taken in the shadow of our war to make that as powerful as it was," a Rakshasha, assigned to guarding this set of network architects, noted grimly. "The few that still lived in Nifelheim won't bring it back to full power. Is there any sign of what he's doing up there besides killing his own people?"

"Nifelheim is still sealed," someone said. "But...okay, found a packet of information here..."

The hologram of his console stretched out to show a Demon sitting calmly in what looked like a cell, bound and held.

"Urien, Demon of Fever, Most of these packets are being found and destroyed," the image said. "A few Shadows have already been caught connected to leaving them. They all know our methods and we've been having to adapt. These packets are being left as death reports only in order to avoid being betrayed by them."

He looked out off to the side.

"I wasn't discovered, Balor realized I'm minor healer," he explained. "So I'm on his list. The ritual should be in the next hour. In any case, I've got more time than most to hide this thing."

The Demon paused and continued.

"I'll be leaving a present for Balor," he explained. "My pishogue has already been corrupted. Since it's going to that Eye of his, it probably won't kill him directly, but it will hopefully leave his weapon...unstable."

Other packets of information began to be found.

"Putana, Demoness of Poison," the next said, a woman in a lab coat standing in the midst of a number of fallen bodies. "We've had a problem in the Gehenna Compact grounds. Most of the staff has succumbed to what seems to be a poison gas of some sort. Where in the world could that have come from? I'm afraid this means that those disloyal to Hild's memory have lost most of their medical support. Heavens. How terrible. Ahh...I see they're coming to receive my report. I do estimate at least twenty of the new regime's henchman dying in the next little while, how unfortunate and tragic. This shall likely be my last report at least."

"I'm Illu..janka's daughter," the young woman, girl really. apparently eighteen, gasped, clearly in pain and torn up severely, bleeding from a heavy gash in her skull, missing an arm and large chunk torn out of her torso, bodies all over the place destroyed by spikes all striking out all over the room. "Rene...They said there was no...place to go...but...there is...I took some people to the Abyss...they're fixing it an saw us go in...so tried to stop us...I think...I made it go into lockdown, had to stay outside for that...everybody else should be safe...I think I'm dying...so...I'm leaving a message...I'm sorry all I ever was was a clerk, mother...I know you expected better..."

"Rahu, Demon of Eclipses," a Demon said, sitting in a chair and waiting irritably. "Mission failed. Couldn't reach Nidhog, trapped in here. Going to take as many as I can when they breach into the room."

"Tavara, Demon of Alliances," a new one said leaning over a desk looking defeated. "Gambit succeeded in the worst way possible, enemy factions fighting each other, but the criminals are winning out easily...I'm with a batch of the first set of rebels, we're buying time for most of the civies to get out of the way, some girl in the clerk's office thinks she can get into the Abyss and seal them up, she got Putana into Gehenna, so maybe she can do it...I've ensured our worst sociopath gets total power...Creator forgive me."

There were more than thirty of the same messages, mostly with bad news, and buried in among them.

"Hey, I'm Rene, Illujanka's daughter," the same girl from the third message, looking much brighter and more alert. "You know, from her Woodstock thing. Umm, I'm a clerk here with the Nidhogg Tenders. I sort of turned Nidhog back on. It wasn't all that hard, I know where all the manuals are. I'm a clerk and no one really pays attention to me. I know it doesn't turn on all at once...but if it's on just a little, maybe someone will notice and...I don't know, hack their way in? Does it even work like that?"

"They didn't turn it on," someone said in relief.

"Unfortunately," someone else said. "Now they are, lots of activity. We're going to be seeing company soon."

* * *

The artificial night in Asgard came with bright lights and loud laughter up in the high palace of Zeus.

"Come on, come on," Zeus roared drunkenly. "I was promised one of these beauty pageants, the mortals have let's see the contestants."

Several women walked out into the courtyard, looks on their faces ranging from disdain to serenity.

"Hmmm, Benten, Aphrodite, Erzuli, Freya and, should we let human immortals in?" Apollo asked, indicating Daio Chen, one of those heroes who had acquired immortality through deed.

"Why, Apollo? Are you afraid she might be too much for you?" Freya asked with a cruel twist to her mouth. "You asked for the five greatest beauties left in Asgard, this is them. Now, you get to judge for yourself, which is the better? Raw Passion?"

"Perhaps," Benten said stepping forward. "You prefer Eloquence and Grace?"

"Perhaps skill and attentiveness," Daio Chan asked.

"Or the Goddess of Obsession perhaps," Erzuli offered.

"And, of course, there is just raw physical perfection," Aphrodite offered casually.

"Let's hear your votes gentlemen," Benten said calmly.

Hera watched the whole thing irritably and angrily, arms crossed from where she sat on the throne.

The assorted Gods blinked as a certain feeling started to wash over them and Freya immediately stepped forward to call out to the assorted Gods. She stepped forward and cupped the chin of one particular God who looked like he was thinking of something through the haze of drink."

"Come on," she said in a sultry tone. "You can't even count high enough to reach the number of lovers that I've had. Sure you have to see that I am clearly the most desirable and beautiful here."

"Pfft," Aphrodite noted, stepping toward another side of the gathering. "You have not lived for even half as long as I, Vanir slut."

"Such language," Benten said, shaking her head. "I have been much more selective in my lovers. Only the greatest of Men and Gods have been allowed to be graced with my touch, and I am sorry to say I have so far missed our new lord here."

"All such wonderful and temporary feats," Erzuli said stepping forward herself, shaking her Loa figure. "I have three husbands, boys. What must I do right to keep three men attentive to me for all time?"

"Humbly," Daio Chan said bowing and moving to sit in Cu Cuchulain's seat. "I must admit to not having such a long list of incredible feats. I must settle instead for having been the consort of the one warrior of any race that none ever defeated in open combat, not even Gods or Demons."

Several interested eyes sorted over each of the five beauties when a winged woman with armor came in at a run.

"Father!" she shouted. "The Old Monkey some other renegades are taking civilians away, to Earth! Yggdrasil is awake!"

"Actually," Benten thought. "It's Tartarous, going OUT of the line of fire there, I think."

Zeus stood up to his feet.

"Excellent, Nike!" he declared. "Then it is time to..."

And Aphrodite stepped forward.

"Not yet, nephew," and the daughter of Uranus let the word sink in. "We have business to attend to."

"We'll handle that later," Zeus noted idly.

"Actually we'll handle it not," Aphrodite said. "Girls, this may take a while...give the adults privacy."

"What are you..." Benten started to say before she, Erzuli, Freya and Daio Chan and Hera vanished.

"Now," Aphrodite said, as her marks flared and an almost visible wave of mindless lust washed through the gathering, even into the eyes of Nike and the other women. "Let's see how long I can last without full power. I'd still wager I'll burst quite a few hearts. I am after all, one of the last Titans."

She smiled as the swarm of victims swarmed in toward her.

* * *

"...doing?" Benten ended.

"What the!" someone shouted as a woman shrieked.

"Why are we in someone's bedroom?" Erzuli asked as the two humans ducked behind a bed.

The man of the pair stared around at the five lovely Immortal and immortal women around him, wondering how to respond to their sudden appearance.

"Aphrodite's medium is scenes of infidelity," Freya said with a sigh. "And she's old and practiced enough just to send people without going herself."

"Scenes of infidelity," the human woman in the room they'd appeared in repeated. "You're married?"

"No, what made you think that?" the man protested. "How can you believe a bunch of strange people that appear out of nowhere?"

Hera found herself staring at the unfaithful husband, frowning angrily.

"You are going to apologize, mortal," Hera warned. "Or your going to wish..."

"Other things right now, Hera," Erzuli said, grabbing the Goddess of Marriage by the arm and escorting her out of the room. "Smite the adulterers later."

As the women left the two people behind, the man was left seeing his lover dressing herself and leaving herself. In a moment he was alone.

"What the hell just happened?" he asked.

* * *

The first skirmishes as Lind and Athena led enemies on forays into Asgard proved that their enemy was uncoordinated but held overwhelming force. They weren't able, with their handful of warriors, to make much of a dent or do much more than harass them and destroy a Mantle or two.

"Did anybody see Zeus?" Peorth asked as they returned.

"No," Athena said. "Heracles, Limos, Hermes and myself hoped to draw him out, but we didn't see one sight of him the entire time. And striking to his palace would have left us to vulnerable."

"He hid?" Peorth demanded. "I knew many things about Zeus but a never realized he was a coward."

"Considering I'm his daughter and his granddaughter," Limos noted. "He might have reason to be afraid."

"The curse is apparently for a son to do the job," Heracles said. "We shouldn't have risked either of you two when it might do no good."

"There were quite a few prominent Gods among the rebels who failed to show themselves as well," Lind noted. "I'm wondering if something kept them busy."

* * *

It was more than a day, maybe two, later that saw Aphrodite leaning atop Zeus and straddling him as several Gods lay strewn about the courtroom, covering most of the available space. She was breathing heavily and her marks were fading to a dull blue and her arms shaking even as her bosom heaved.

"Well, I got close there," she said. "My brother made his curses strong. Still, I think that's a...rough fifty...hundred? Soldiers that you'll be missing? And another five times that...somewhat incapable of duty for quite a long while."

She patted his cheek and smirked down at him.

"You know..." she said loud enough for those around and still cognizant to hear. "Now I really know why you can't get any girls to come to you willingly."

"Ho..how dare you say that," Zeus demanded.

"This was..." Aphrodite wearily searched for a phrase. "Hardly worth the effort. I don't see why Apollo is so jealous of you."

"Apollo is nothing but a..." Zeus protested angrily.

"Now, Ares..." Aphrodite said. "He was a MAN...you shouldn't have let Apollo kill him...tsk tsk...I might not have cared then. Now, I have to follow him...he's the only one worth having regularly. Love and War...all's fair."

And then the last spark of power gave out and she collapsed on top of him, body burned out by the effort she'd put it through and spirit moving on to whatever came next for her.

* * *

Leonard stepped into his laboratory and took a look at one of a set of prototypes. His own version of the Whisper of Souls and something else. Something he'd been putting together for months now.

A tall, crystalline machine.

"Gilgamesh sought immortality and failed because such power was not meant for those who walked the Earth," he noted. "Such is the path humanity walks. And it will have to fail one way or another."

* * *

"I don't think we should be doing this," Kinsey said bitterly. "These...people call themselves Gods and Demons for Christ sake. And if this information is correct right it's their people that are going to be invading so how can we trust them."

"Robert," the president said. "Have you met one?"

"No," he said. "I'm glad to say I have not had the matter forced on me."

"Well, you're about to meet some," Hayes said, pushing up the door to the next room.

He paused as he took in the people inside, sitting and waiting for them.

A young woman with blue facial marks and an air of serenity sat at a table chatting with Dr. Daniel Jackson, who had similar facial marks in green Kinsey noted with a twist to his mouth. At the woman's side was another young man with green facial marks and the way they sat close to each other and held their hands entwined implied a closeness confirmed by a pair of rings.

Further down the table was a familiar blonde woman with wild hair and red facial marks. There was an unhealthy paleness to her skin, that implied that she was somewhat unwell. She was chatting closely with a redheaded woman while a third woman, looking like a somewhat disheveled secretary, arranged notes.

Another Japanese woman with green marks sat off to the side watching the first couple with a mixture of happiness and bittersweet regret. She sat with the normal Japanese representatives for important NATO meetings. Beside her sat a man with blue facial marks on his face as he chatted with the other a bit animatedly.

Then there were the normal collection of representatives of the major NATO powers.

O'Neil was there of course, as was other members of the Socrates Group flagship team. All of them with similar green marks.

As soon as he entered the room, attention started to direct toward the president, and people stood up.

Major Davis stepped forward and gestured toward the president.

"Mr President," he said. "Allow me some introductions."

"Go ahead," Hayes noted.

"These are Keiichi and Belldandy Morisato," he said indicating the young couple who bowed with a light blush of embarrassment. "Belldandy is representing the Gods currently residing on Earth."

"It is an honor to meet you, sir," Belldandy said quickly reaching out to take his hand with a smile.

"Yeah," Keiichi said. "I'm not even really sure why I'm here, myself."

Kinsey sniffed at that from behind Hayes. It was a clear publicity stunt to include the human husband of one of these...beings. He just wondered whose idea it was.

"Well, the honor is mine, I think," he said. "I've only met one other Goddess I think, but you only represent the Gods on Earth."

"Yes, well," Belldandy said, looking toward the male God. "Like my...husband," and she almost sparkled the way she said that "I feel I might be making an...imposition here."

"And what might that be?"" Hayes started to ask.

"If I may, Major," the male God said with a flourish, "the specific details of that are best left to the meeting, I am Hermes Cyllene and will represent the word of those of us who hold Yggdrasil."

Belldandy looked a little flustered at that.

"However," Hermes said. "I do remind Lady Wodinsdo...I mean, Mrs. Morisato, forgive me, that her presence was requested by her old friend here."

"Ahh, politics," Hayes thought. "Oh, this is Vice President Kinnsey."

Keiichi and Belldandy turned to face him, Keiichi bowing quickly, somewhat overwhelmed while Belldandy was calmer still, more serene. Especially as she held out her hand.

"So, you're one of these people that think they're God?" he said doubtfully.

Belldandy looked a little deflated at the comment and frowned slightly.

"You'll have to forgive Mr. Kinsey," Hayes said. "He's a bit old fashioned on these things."

"Last I heard," Kinsey said, "the First Commandment still says..."

"...I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other Gods before me," Belldandy quoted. "I believe in the Creater, Vice President. Though...I must admit, I haven't really taken part in human religion before. I'm...pretty much practicing Shintoism for the last few years."

"I see," Kinsey noted turning toward Hermes. "And you?"

"I'm rather a bit agnostic," Hermes said. "If there is a Supreme Being, fine, but I rather wish he'd stick his nose into things once in a while."

"Anyway, sir," Major Hayes said, moving on. "Mara Geisthexe, currently representing Nifelheim."

Mara walked over stiffly, wincing slightly.

"Mr. President," she said, offering a hand. "Sorry if I'm a bit shaky."

"Ms Geisthexe was injured in the reported action on Meridia," Major Davis noted.

"You look fine," Kinsey said.

"The sort of fight I was in deals internal injuries," Mara noted.

"I'm sorry, Mara," Belldandy said. "I tried..."

"I know," Mara said. "Anyway, I'm surprised you haven't recognized me Mr. Kinsey, then we were a bit younger last time we saw each other."

"I don't believe I have ever met one of your kind," the vice president said darkly.

"Sure you have," Mara noted. "You were at my baptism, thirty-five years ago. I was about...six years old at the time and you were...twenty? I volunteered at your city council election campaign when I was fourteen. Got in trouble for it too, not supposed to get involved with human politics."

Kinsey's mouth firmed closed as he took in the woman in front of him and her apparent claim.

"Wow, Kinsey," O'Neil said. "Looks like you had the devil's help getting elected."

Both Mara and Kinsey turned sour expressions toward O'Neil at that one.

"We don't like being called that," Mara noted seriously.

"If you'd please, Colonel," President Hayes said, hiding a smirk on his face.

"All right, all right," O'Neil said.

"If you'd please continue the introductions, Major," Hayes said.

"Right," he said, gesturing toward the red head moving up beside Mara. "Ms Ranma Satomi represents Psyche and Mithril."

"Good to meet you, President," Ranma said in a friendly tone holding out her hand. "And I'm glad to meet Senator Kinsey too. I can't count the number psychics trapped in Warsaw research facilities that have his funding decisions to thank for depending on a mercenary organization such as Mithril to bust them out of state slavery and vivisection."

Mara put a hand to her face as Kinsey grimaced and accept Ranma's hand.

"Great," Daniel muttered. "It's a female Jack."

"This is going to be a long meeting," Hayes noted rolling his eyes as O'Neil suppressed a smile of his own.

"Excuse me, Ma'am, sir," the secretary noted stepping forward and bowing. "I'm Yomiko Readman, Director Satomi's secretary. It is definitely a very great honor to meet you, Mr President. I've read all about your policies and history, most impressive."

"Good to hear," Hayes said, looking toward the Japanese delegation. "And we have one last new comer it seems?"

The Japanese representative stepped forward and gestured for the woman to follow him.

"Sayoko Mishima was offered and accepted a position on staff for her experience with these other races," the man said.

"I'm afraid that I probably won't be contributing too much," Sayoko said in a way that was rather forcefully humble. "I'm the newest member here, after all."

"Well now," the president said. "Now that that's out of the way. Can we get down to business."

He gestured for everyone to sit down and gestured for someone to begin.

"I've had my people collecting information for a few weeks now," she said. "Most of that I think has been in Director Satomi's reports to you. Every rogue God or Demon we've been able to track down, is already in information you guys have. Now, both Yggdrasil and Nidhog are allowing access, we've got information on Asgard and Nifelheim as well."

She glanced toward Hermes before continuing.

"I'm a bit confused as to what's happening in Asgard," she said. "Some of my people got an odd report from some escapees about a beauty pageant, and Hermes' report seems to suggest that Zeus and a number of other prominent rogue Gods have decided to sit on their asses for a few days instead of invading...whatever, it's good for us."

"We're not entirely certain either," Hermes said. "But given you said Aphrodite was involved..."

"Moving on," Mara said quickly, reaching her hands out to summon a console. "I think we'll see the escaped convicts from the Abyss before we see the Gods. I'm going to play a selection of reports we've just managed to get out of our agents still in Nifelheim. The deaths of most of the givers of these reports is confirmed."

An image of a mutilated young girl appeared in the room.

"I'm Illu...janka's daughter, Rene..."

* * *

All across Japan, America and Western Europe, government representatives spoke on the news and confirmed rumors that had been flying ever since the more talkative of the God and Demon civilians had started interacting with humans, especially reporters.

And militaries mobilized everywhere in the NATO countries to get ready for what was coming.

Kyoko looked out the window as her parents watched the television and saw soldiers moving around in the streets below.

"Doesn't that girl who shows up in your pictures a lot have marks like those, Kyoko?" her mother asked sharply. "Is she..."

"She's a Demoness. Her sister is a Goddess," Kyoko said calmly. "And it was a God that hit me."

"How long have you known about this?" her father demanded.

"They're just people, very strong, but just people," Kyoko said, turning around and walking on her cane to a seat.

"This is not a matter just to brush..."

"Mom, Dad," she said. "Amaterasu is going to my high school."

Her parents hesitated.

"Amaterasu?" her mother repeated.

"She's apparently fourteen and crushing on a kendoist," Kyoko confirmed.

They had no answer to that.

* * *

Natsume held Hel in her hands as she moved forward toward the people setting up the circle to take her and the young Demoness to the Labyrinth and better safety, given that Balor apparently intended to finish of the Demonic healers and death seers for his own power.

"You're sure they'll come here?" Natsume asked Ranma as she came up to the red-head.

"As best as Mara's people can guess," the redhead said. "Hel's in their system and they can track her here. They tell me getting into the Labyrinth is going to be a lot harder."

* * *

_You want me to do what?_ Naiki asked.

_We're going to seal you until Balor can be killed,_ Tessa said. _It won't be long._

_I can still fight_ Naiki protested.

_But what if he makes you fight us,_ Tessa warned.

_That's not going to happen._

_And that's why we're taking this precaution,_ Tessa noted.

Naiki was going to respond when she felt the ground underneath her shake violently, but not as if it were in an Earthquake. No, it felt like something and struck the Earth with a hideous impact.

Naiki felt a huge amount of pishogue filtering through the air from the center of town.

"Now! We'll start on removing the blight from this world!" a loud voice declared shaking evenly throughout the city. "This world belongs to Demons, we were here first, and we will be here last! And I, Balor shall be their master and your doom!"

_I've got a better idea, Tessa_ Naiki said. _I'm going to kill him before he can call in a favor._

_No, Naiki don't call attenti..._

And for the second time ever Naiki succeeded in cutting off Tessa's protests.

* * *

"This would have been easier if this happened during the school day," Thrud noted as she appeared in the Labyrinth through a full gate with most of the Jindai students and staff she'd been responsible for, as well as their families.

Around her, several puffs of smoke were erupting, showing that Moloch and his set were likewise bringing in surprised and terrified civilians.

* * *

"Oh no," Eija said quietly, looking out to see several points of battle going on throughout the city. "There's more than just him."

An explosion rocked the city maybe five miles away and she was washed over with the sensation of people dying. Painfully and suddenly.

"This is it," Kaname said, coming up beside Eija.

"Come on," Sousuke said. "We have to find a way to get both of you out of here."

"I can help now!" Kaname protested.

"You're not trained for this," Eija said quietly wincing again. "I'm not really trained for this. Only Sousuke is."

"Correct," Sousuke said.

Eija winced again, and this time Kaname with her.

"Damn it!" Kaname said. "Will you two stop trying to shelter me? I've already helped kill one person! I really tried to make it two."

They stopped looked back toward Kaname, fire and wind raging in the background. Missiles streaking to and fro, pinpoint devices of destruction capable of targeting human sized objectives from miles away without causing much in the way of collateral damage to the surrounding area.

"Poseidon," Eija said.

"Kaname," Sousuke said. "I didn't..."

"Come on, soldier boy," Kaname snapped. "We've got to get started DOING something. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it! This is our home! I'm not just helpless anymore!"

And she dived to the ground as something exploded a mere hundred feet behind sending showers of shrapnel and fire around the scene. Sousuke immediately stepped forward, to put himself between the debris and the girls.

The debris stopped short of the three.

And then it became clear that what had been destroyed was an Amalgam Venom.

"Urzu-7, your job here is combat," a voice said and the three turned to look as a Korean woman stepped forward, depositing an expended RPG as she did so. Another woman moved in on her side, a younger Japanese woman.

"I'm the one responsible for Miss Chidori's and Miss Satomi's protection detail," the Korean woman said firmly.

"But I want to help," Kaname snapped stepping forward.

Wraith didn't hesitate and simply slapped her. Eija stepped forward, a shocked look on her face as she came to Kaname's side and Sousuke pushed forward to get in Wraith's face.

"You claim to be their protection?" Sousuke demanded angrily.

"The lot of you need to stop being selfish and start being soldiers, now," Wraith said. "Sgt Sagara, you are a combat specialist in a war zone. Your task should be obvious, but you are wasting time escorting your girlfriends and that just puts them in danger longer."

Sousuke winced at the reminder.

"Eija Satomi," she said next. "You are a combat medic, yes, but emphasis on medic and one who is uniquely equipped to recover injured soldiers and keep massively injured people alive long enough to be saved paranaturally or scientifically. We need to take you to a medical facility where you can do some good, not playing hero out here."

And then she turned to Kaname.

"And you aren't trained for any of this," Wraith emphasized. "At all, you are clever, you are intelligent and you learn quickly. You are also a key element in this Silmaril network and someone who has invaded another network in the past. You're going to Geisthexe and helping her shut down the power on these lunatics at the source."

The three looked at each other; Kaname contrite and sheepish, Eija hanging her head and Sousuke still glaring angrily; as other people started to come into view behind Wraith, mostly human but with one Ainur woman who seemed vaguely familiar to Sousuke, possibly from a report somewhere.

It was likely the Ainur who'd stopped the debris, as probably he, Eija or Kaname should have been able to do if they'd thought of it.

"Sagara," Wraith said handing the glaring soldier a comm unit. "The Arbalest should be coming soon, Captain Testarossa will give you coordinates. Use it, Intelligence is taking charge of your girlfriends here. In all meanings of the word. We won't lose them."

"That was an Amalgam AS," Sousuke noted.

"Yes, it was," Wraith noted. "And there are probably more. Try to do your job and find and kill them. We'll do our job, you do yours."

* * *

"Well?" Hayes asked.

"We've got several reports of attacks across the globe," Major Davis said. "They're moving mostly into cities making it hard to target them without civilians in the line of fire. Balor is reported to have made himself known in Japan leading probably the largest group. Fighting has started there between our forces, Japans and elements of Mithril and Psyche forces."

* * *

The Demon walked boldly down the street, destroying everything he could see as he did, not bothering to determine whether there were humans in the midst of the lot or not.

He turned a corner, seeing a number of pathetic sheep fleeing the wolf. Weak Demons and Gods who never bothered to make much use of their powers, humans by the plenty. Worms and corrupted weaklings that needed to be culled for the health of whole. They'd been at some sort of evacuation point when he attacked and scattered.

Running from battle, the weaklings.

Then he blinked as he saw a rifle butt filling his vision.

The Demon was briefly amused by the sight and then it struck and snapped his head backward and sent him sprawling to his back in surprise as he looked up from his position to see a smirking Chinese woman shouldering the rifle as she glowed brightly white, green marks flaring on her face.

"Heya, Barney," she said with a snicker.

Shards of metal carrying the glowing force of a massive amount of chi ripped into the ground beside the Demon as he barely rolled out of the way and to his feet.

The red glow of pishogue enveloped him and he reached out to summon a linking cord of stone and shards to form a long whip of earth.

"I am Belial, fool," he said. "I don't know what you think you can accomplish with whatever artifact you've gathered, but no pathetic chi is a match for the force of pishogue Lord Ba..."

He was interrupted as Mao strafed across him, rolling her eyes. He had to dive forward to avoid the majority of the chi empowered bullets and come up close enough to lash out at Mao.

Grimacing, Mao reached out to catch the whip with her rifle, locking it in place.

In reaction, Belial charged forward, hand reaching back, summoning or creating a stone blade as he did so. Slashing downward, Mao held up an elbow into it's path. The stone sword shattered on her arm as if it were glass.

"What?" Belial asked before the butt of the rifle was again slammed into him, this time his abdomen.

"Oh come on, Barney, you're not even trying," Mao said as she started to bring down her rifle on top of his head. "Sing it with me now! I hit you," the rifle butt came down, "you hit me," her knee came up into his face "we're a brawling virtuosity."

Growling, Belial's fist burst upward into Mao's jaw knocking her across the street. Lashing out with his whip again, Mao grimmaced as it scored a line down her arm cutting through the battle aura as this time he extended his chi around it.

"You pathetic copy!" he shouted. "How the hell do you expect to beat me. Even if you're into the power of the 2nd category, I am far stronger than that now."

His battle aura loomed over his body as he took his reptilian ancestral form and slashed out again with his sword as he came in at her.

She rose a block with her rifle, being shifted aside several feet and almost knocked off balance.

"You've got the power to destroy the world," Mao said with effort. "And you're wasting it on fisticuffs?"

"If I kill you too quickly, worm," he said. "How will I enjoy it."

"Your call, Barney," Mao noted, twisting her rifle and firing a burst almost wildly, causing Belial to step back.

The chi enhanced bullets curved about as Mao continued to fire, following Belial and forcing him to dodge aside so that they'd destroy themselves against the terrain.

Then he was in her face again, powering through the block this time, wincing as his attack allowed some of her bullets to strike him through the battle aura. Still, Mao staggered as he smashed through her own hardened rifle and drove her painfully down to the ground.

"What made you think you could even think about taking me on, worm?" Belial demanded leaning over her and leering with sharpened teeth.

"In position, civilians clear, evac ready," a voice said in Mao's ear. "Do it."

"Sergant Major Melissa Mao," she said, struggling to her feet and boggling that the Demon would let her. "And to tell you a secret. I'm really not rated category 2. 8-2+6-26-13+12-1312..."

As the numbers moved on at high speed, swirling about her in various manipulated patterns, her aura flared out again and she thrust outward with enough power that where it slammed into Belial's aura, the visible light around them bent in odd, unpredictable ways.

Surprised, he crossed his arms and put all his own effort into countering her aura where it matched with his.

The stone earth around Mao rose up to stab out at her as an orbit of white glowing orbits circled her intercepting everything come into her frame and she focused forward, stepping against the force of Belial's aura, a brilliant white and green star pushing on a sea of red fire half again her size.

Around them, the Earth warped and shards of metal whipped about attacking each other and intercepting attacks, digging a crater about them and collapsing buildings.

"Just call me the Ainur of Lesson Learned!" Mao shouted over the din.

"You fool, I don't know where you're getting this much power, but you'll tire out before I will," he shouted, pushing more effort into his attack.

"Oh yeah, Barney!" Mao shouted. "But when that happens, are you going to have enough?"

Growling into a roar, Belial pushed forward, pishogue slamming through Mao's defenses and a stone outcropping brute forcing its way through the orbits of shrapnel into her chest and sending her flying backward.

Breathing heavily his shoulders heaved as he moved back into his human form and strode forward to where Mao was trying to shake her head clear. Grabbing her by the throat, he lifted her up from the ground.

"Enough for what?" he asked. "What do you have left?"

A puff of smoke appeared behind Mao as a second demon appeared to wrap arms about her. The Ainur smirked at him and winked.

"Friends, Barney," she said before vanishing into smoke with the second Demon.

Belial blinked at that statement wondering what she could mean when a pair of cruise missiles slammed down on his position. He just barely raised the last fleeting amount of effort he could put his body too.

The explosion ripped outward from his position, encompassing a region twice again that which he and Mao together had destroyed and, as the smoke cleared, all that remained was a barely conscious form that tried to pull up to one knee only for a succession of small rockets to swarm his position.

A mile away, Mao saw the results of the explosion as she sat and caught her breath, letting the Demon and a human medic look her over.

"Good work, Sergeant Major," a tall man said as he dropped his hand down and looked over at her.

"Thanks, sir," she said. "By the way, is there a less math-heavy way to handle our network access?"

* * *

"Tokyo?" Ranma said, surprised. "Not here? What's in..."

"What is it," Natsume asked.

"Gods, there are Gods in Tokyo," Ranma said. "Refugees. Probably more than one death seer. At least one: Eija."

She smacked her forehead self-deprecatingly and started drawing a circle in the ground.

* * *

A small force of Demons, trusted with less power than the rather blunt and poorly imaginative Belial found their own block in the form of two teenagers standing in the open with green marks on their faces.

"What's this?" one of the Demons said. "Who are you."

"We're stopping you here," Deimosu said stepping forward.

"6-4+2-42-31+11-3111...," Yonjuu was saying as the numbers swirled in the air around her. "...18195415515-181954+15515*=*28+17-10+8-1+8-9"

A stretch of chi moved between her and Deimosu then.

The Demons blinked, some recognizing the basic influence of numerology in the chant, but not the particular manipulations going on. And the numbers were rolling out so quickly, as if the girl were speaking in extreme fastforward.

_I think it worked, I'm now seeing what you're seeing too,_ Yonjuu said.

_Same here,_ Deimosu said. _Watch my back._

Yonjuu stepped around to put her back against Deimosu's.

Then the Demon's charged forward.

The first two of the small squad leaped forward, wind lashing out with sickles invisible to the naked eye.

Deimosu saw the fractional disturbances in the dust as they struck in and returned with his own yamasenken sickles to slash through the demonic wind.

The Demons circled around to surround the two and come in at the girl at Deimosu's back. Instead they found bursts of yellow lightning striking down at them even as the girl kept pace with Deimosu, reciting a quick routine of numbers that merged together too fast to catch.

Yonjuu's mind was working furiously, focusing only on the access of powers and trying to remember all the practiced manipulations starting with the single digit number representing her and moving out to the component's of that reduced digit, the digits of her name added together, and then outward, working through the manipulations that reached the sisters she had that she knew.

Around her, using both her eyes and senses, Deimosu intercepted anything that came at either of them and added to her fire with lightning he needed no mental manipulations or borrowing for.

A knight defending his sorceress out of the old tales.

Though Yonjuu did not represent the classic image of the cool, confident sorceress or faithful priestess. She nervously and loudly chanting numbers after numbers and forcing herself to keep her eyes open not to rob Deimosu of some of his field of vision. At her side her fingers were snapping to give her mind something to focus around and focus her intentions through.

Nor did Deimosu, wielding lightning and fighting with no created weapon present the classic image of the night in shining armor even as he and Yonjuu moved through the lot of the 'small fry'. Though they still had vastly more power than they were used to.

"I've got all the powers of my sisters in mind and ready!" Yonjuu called out psyching herself up. "And there are a LOT of us."

Her point was made as waves of fire, lightning, disorienting sonics and more cascaded about her, forcing their opponents into place for Deimosu to easily finish them off one by one.

Hardly any of the Demons noticed that while they were fighting these two here, most of those falling weren't due to the highly flashy displays in front of them.

Yonjuu's senses were being shared across more than just her and Deimosu.

"Taking the shot," Kurz said calmly seconds before a Demon shuddered in confusion.

Most warrior type Demons and Gods had gone through processes similar to Naiki that made their skin nigh invulnerable to normal weaponry.

Of course, these days, there were sniper rifles designed to fire through light armored vehicles.

"Got a shot here," another Mithril sniper, not an Ainur, but still benefiting from Yonjuu's effect. "Taking it."

"I'm seeing reinforcements on the way, and the DaDanan is inbound," someone noted. "Get the wonder-kids out of the line of fire."

"Already going," one of a pair of Demons said, bursting into smoke to appear around Deimosu and Yonjuu and pull them out again.

Other Demons appeared around the various snipers and they vanished into smoke themselves.

And then the cruise missiles struck down.

* * *

Balor laughed as he faced a handful of Demons and Gods with some of these strange new immortals with the green marks. They were putting up a good fight, but he'd given himself more than double the normal allowed power of any one Demon.

He fancied he had even more power than Hild would have been allowed now.

He would have been disappointed.

There was a little fluctuation as the eye opened and power washed over the people in front of him. A Japanese soldier with Ainur marks shoved Bastet aside as he was torn to pieces by the wave of death. Bastet herself still caught the edge of it and landed in a pained heap, limping back behind cover.

He hadn't found what he was looking for yet.

"Keep moving!" Thor shouted angrily as he moved in on the side of Balor and slammed his hammer into the Demon, only for it to be deflected.

And then he barely dodged out of the way as Balor turned to give his eye a look at the God of Thunder. Behind Balor, Thor smashed his hammer down bringing across a roaring crackle of thunder that even shook the empowered Balor on his heels.

"I'm pulling Bastet out," a Demon said grabbing the cat Goddess and vanishing into a puff of smoke.

Hidden around the site, other Demons were filtering and quietly manipulating their own Realms in support of the Gods, Ainur and one or two on site Rakshasha Demon warriors.

Balor growled as the dust and ash and other things persisted in blocking his sight. He glanced aside again, this time feeling pain as his eye triggered and another pair of front line warriors were killed.

The heavy head of Mjolnir slammed him upside the head sending him reeling back and then again. He tried to vanish away into smoke and found, surprisingly that he couldn't.

About half a mile away, Nimu Ichi sat with a Demon and a God meditating. In her case she was borrowing her sister Shichimu's power of distance viewing and letting it spread between the two other Immortals with her.

Dosojin, God of Traveling and Herne the Demon of Obstacles.

The three of them were all focusing their efforts, including Nimu's telekinesis, on containing the rogue God's ability to escape.

Sitting together in a three-pointed circle heightening the amount of energy they had access to, he'd still eventually brute force through them, but by then it would be too late.

Then something burst out of the murk and dust, slamming into Balor viciously and kicking him out of the fight with Thor and the other warriors moving forward to join in on whittling down the Rogue Demon.

"What the hell was that?" Thor demanded.

Naiki pulled her arms together as she kneeled atop Balor and got ready to rip them apart for yamasenken focused with all the power she could put into it.

"Ah...Naiki Satomi, Demoness of Torrent, I call in a favor, take me your house, immediately," he said.

"Shut down Satomi's teleport!" one of the soldier's shouted across toward the three focusing on holding Balor.

But Naiki had already reached forward to grab Balor and both her and the rogue Demon vanished.

* * *

"Wha...what did I just do?" Naiki wondered shocked.

"You fulfilled a favor," Balor said, pushing off the girl as he looked around her house. "Now you're going to do me one more. I call in a favor, Demonic daughter of House DisPater, bring your sister to have a talk with me."

The look of horrified realization came over Naiki's face then as Nidhog started working to enforce the request, well within the limits of a category 3 favor.

Naiki stood up smoothly though she didn't want to and vanished to the last place she knew Eija had been at.

And then she started hunting.

* * *

"This is Wraith," the Korean woman said. "We're about to reach the designated location, I've got both packages with me and Sgt Sagara should be entering the fight."

"I hope everyone is..." Eija started to say.

And then there was a burst of smoke briefly revealing Naiki before both Satomi sisters vanished.

"Damn it!" Wraith snapped. "Kaname, where is she?"

"She's at her home," Kaname replied. "With Balor?"

"This is Wraith, we have a situation," the Korean woman said.

"This is Captain Testarossa," Tessa's voice said. "We're handling it. I've got contact with Naiki again. Get Kaname here, Geisthexe needs everyone we can spare to shut these people down. We're holding Tokyo, but there aren't enough of us around the world, and the Americans have had rumblings of nuclear reaction from the Soviets."

* * *

"You'll forgive me if I keep talking," Balor said. "My favor wouldn't allow me to just outright ask your sister to capture you for sacrifice, but as long as I talk to you, she has to make you listen and I can do what I want."

The Demon, looking significantly battered walked around the house as he spoke.

_Tessa?_ Naiki called out. _What do I do?_

_This is WHY we wanted to seal you, idiot,_ Tessa snapped back, uncharacteristically angry for the moment. _Keep him busy._

"Just talk," Naiki insisted. "I don't have to let you do anything else."

"Yes, little Demoness," Balor said. "But don't you see, you can't successfully kill me either. Not that you have a chance. You're...category 2 on your own? Something like that. Category 3 in the system. You see, Eija, trying to kill me would end the conversation, and she can't do that."

Eija looked up at the angry expression on Naiki's face and then over toward Balor, and frowned at him.

"You're eye is broken," she said. "I can see it leaking death into you every moment."

"I'm hoping to fix it," Balor said. "It seems like some of pishogue has turned rotten somehow, maybe a bit of death-charged mana will fix that."

_If he has to keep talking to keep Naiki from fighting him,_ Kaname called out to Eija. _Then maybe it works both ways._

"You know," Eija said hesitantly. "This works two ways, you can't really attack me or Naiki or else she can act and then we'll fight back."

"If you really think that will work," Balor said smiling darkly as he took down one of the swords and looked it over, "then you would have just stopped talking and attacked. Because as soon as you attack, then conversation is over and she can fight. But we both know you can't beat me."

"Speak for yourself," Naiki said. "As soon as this talk is over, your throat is mine."

"Your sister knows better, Demonling," Balor said chuckling.

"Then why do you bother keeping the conversation up?" Eija asked. "If you know you can beat us."

"Because it gives me time to prepare a few things so that when we do fight," he said. "I can take you alive and tear your sister's head off without damaging you."

* * *

Kyoko and her parents huddled against the wall as another explosion rocked somewhere in the neighborhood. They jumped as a short brown haired girl with long braids came around the corner.

"Lusca!" Kyoko said.

"Is..Naiki here?" the Demoness asked. "I've been looking for her."

"Should't you be gone?" Kyoko asked. "You can just puff into smoke and pop."

Lusca shook her head.

"I was looking for Naiki and, well," she shrugged. "One of the jerks cursed me! I can't teleport right now! If I were fully grown or put to the right category in the system I could shrug it off! But right now the damn thing sticks!"

"This girl is a..." Kyoko's father asked.

"Hey, I'm Lusca Kraken Demoness of Crushing," Lusca said in a friendly tone.

"Okay," Kyoko said. "Do you know where we can..."

A roaring battle cry called out behind Lusca and she turned around, eyes wide.

"Oh this is so not funny," she said.

Leaning forward, Lusca stepped in front of the humans and concentrated. Massive tentacles rose up out of the ground and lashed out of every surface she could see as she turned taller and her brown braids stretched out into thick, reptilian tentacles which lashed out to grab the walls around either side of her, a thick webbing between them forming a thick wall protecting the people behind her.

She'd had thousands of years of boredom with the only thing to pass the time being variations in her ancestral form. Where as most Demons felt it was a weak, civilian's weapon at best, there weren't many who had so severely honed their ancestral bodies as the Kraken.

Save maybe Poseidon.

For the moment, however, she was still limited in power.

"Oh Kami! She's a monster!" Kyoko's mother gasped.

"Stay behind the monster!" Kyoko called out, moving up behind the wall Lusca was forming.

Ahead of them, the tentacles growing out of the landscape reached out to grab at the Demons charging them and toss them aside, but they were being hacked apart almost as fast as Lusca could summon them. She used them as walls, limbs, weapons, and each that was cut down by one of the Demons that were pushing toward her produced a wince from the monstrous form of Kyoko's friend.

"Call Naiki!" Kyoko shouted.

"But..." Lusca winced. "What if she's needed where she is?"

"Tell her to bring anybody on our side with her!" Kyoko said. "You made her come from across the Pacific Ocean last week, you can make her come across town!"

"But..."

And then one of the Demons started to push in so that Lusca had to reach out with her real arms and dislodge two of the tentacles forming the wall of webbing behind her to grab him.

"Naiki Satomi, Demoness of Torrent!" Lusca shouted. "Bring anybody who can help us with you and save us!"

"What's that supposed to do?" Kyoko's father asked.

* * *

"Tell Tessa I'm on my way," Ranma said. "Going quiet."

"Right, Ma'am," Yomiko said. "Right away.

And then the circle underneath Ranma flooded with power and she was gone.

* * *

Naiki blinked.

_Problem solved!_ she declared victoriously. "Sorry, this is over."

"Oh?" Balor said, pausing in the middle of drawing a circle.

"Bigger favor to fill," Naiki said. "Eija we're going into a fight."

"So's Balor," Eija noted.

And the two vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Damn it," Balor said. "I'll have to hunt them down the old fashioned way. But what were they talking about."

"She was talking about me," a woman's voice said.

Balor twisted about towards the sound of the voice and saw nothing.

"What?" he asked.

"Do you know what the first rule of dealing with a feng shih is?" the woman's voice asked again.

He whirled again and found nothing.

"No, what's the first rule of dealing with a feng shih," Balor asked.

The walls and floors and ceilings around Balor suddenly seemed suffused in power. Highly concentrated, efficiently channeled and focused power slipping in along the routes about the house twisting in and upon itself in ever more intricate manners, knotting and reknotting.

And if he could have seen past the walls, he would have seen the knots and lines of networked and prepared power work outward into the whole of the old neighborhood and its mostly abandoned buildings. Places Ranma had easy access to and most no one disturbed.

A domain of several city blocks prepared over months, even longer going back before she had moved in, by one talented feng shih.

Just in case.

"Never, ever, ever," the woman's voice noted. "Piss off a feng shih on their home ground."

Balor turned about to see a woman with red-hair standing before him and all the power of the house was knotted and concentrated in her. Every path came through her and out of her.

He opened his deadly eye and she stepped aside into the corner of his other eye's vision such that power of his weapon washed out into the house and was quickly choked to death by the insistent flows of chi in the middle.

Ranma stepped forward smoothly and with terrible determination. Carrying the strands of power with her, her hand stabbed into the weakening flow of energy from Balor's weapon.

"Ahh, an opening," Ranma said, noting where the corrupted energy left it unstable.

White chi flooded into the flow of Balor's pishogue and split through like scissors through felt cloth. The recoil startled Balor back but seemed not to disturb the house or furnishings at all while Ranma stepped quickly forward again and, in a flash of wind passed Balor's face, moving too fast to see, but a burst of incredible pain followed as he felt his terrible weapon wrenched out of his face.

"Master of the Quiet Thief Way," Ranma said.

And then she tossed the artificial eye up into the air and slashed her arms out, two vacuum blades destroying it in midair.

"Master of the Loud Thief Way," Ranma said.

"Mortal!" Balor shouted. "You dare to affront me this way! I am more powerful than anything you have ever faced."

He charged forward, striking out against Ranma as he moved.

The woman shifted in size and shape and a dark haired man caught Balor's arm well before he could get into the optimal angle and then Ranma shifted forward bending that arm back with a the cracking and snapping sound of broken bones.

Roaring in pain, Balor stepped back and willed his arm to heal as he slashed out with an arch of fire.

Ranma crouched down, shifting back into female form such that the arch passed right over her harmlessly.

"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken Kansei," she said lunging forward into a charge.

The female form shifted into male in mid flight keeping the same momentum and gaining mass as it struck into Balor's chest, feet first. Ranma let the Kansei go as he grabbed one of the Demon's flailing limbs and shifted back into female form for the agility to slam the Demon into one of her walls.

The wall should have been obliterated, but held out easily.

Balor turned around to see the woman spinning into a jumping roundhouse and shift into male form in the midst of it so that the heel of his foot slammed into Balor's head and sending him across the room, into the training area.

He came to his feet and tried to punch through his opponent again, blinking as Ranma melted into a woman again and the strike passed harmlessly out of the way.

"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Ranma shouted as thousands of blows struck each of the vital areas of anatomy he'd been told a Demon had.

"Wait, wait!" Balor shouted falling back from in front of the woman.

He scrambled away trying to put together the effort to teleport away, realizing he should have dealt with the lock on him immediately.

As he was working at pishogues and slowly trying to work his way through the knots of mana, chi and pishogue that nailed him down, Ranma stood straight and brought her hands together in a hand sign Balor had seen used by exorcists in the past.

"You..you're going to seal me, of course, you mealy cowardly hero types do so hate to do anything evil," Balor said. "Well, next time I see you, it will be outside this house, feng shih, and then you shall be smited for this little match."

Ranma arched an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side.

"This is my house," Ranma said. "Someone should have told you. All smiting privileges are mine."

She altered the sign of her hands.

"Hun Tun," she whispered darkly, and then pulled her hands apart.

Balor had no words to explain what happened next as Ranma's chi reached in and started undoing all the logical bonds and relationships of Balor's physical existence. A terrifying wash of spreading non-existence that spread between the seconds so that he knew both an eternity of pain and yet be dead in the very next breath.

And before even Balor's soul could escape, the waves of chi and power flooding the region came crashing in upon him, slashing into the pieces of his soul as the points came together and coalesced into a tiny pearl which dropped to the ground at Ranma's feet.

The red-head gasped in a sharp breath and shuddered bending at her knees and dropping to the ground.

Catching her breath, Ranma picked up the pearl and then moved over to her desk and started writing a message on a scroll of butterfly paper.


	42. Setting Sun

Another set of tentacles grew out of the walls and the ground dragging one of the attacking Demons across the ground and throwing it into air further back.

Kyoko and her family watched as a cut appeared in the webbing between two of Lusca's braids-turned-tentacle as she called out for Naiki to appear.

Her father was just asking what that was supposed to do when a burst of smoke erupted ahead of Lusca. The rogues knew what was coming and shifted to hem in the figures coming out of the smoke.

Eija and Naiki came out of the smoke and immediately started gathering power. The green-haired girl moving in front and her marks flaring brightly as she set the Earth ahead of her to shaking.

"Naiki, you came!" Lusca called out as if surprised.

"I'm not even caring right now that you're a creepy stalker wh..." Naiki paused as she took in Lusca. "Who's apparently a creepy squid monster."

"Her name is Kraken, Naiki," Eija noted.

The Goddess turned toward the Demons grappling Lusca and slipped her hands out, jabbing pairs of fingers into seemingly harmless spots. But the Goddess of Blood had been a practitioner of dim mak well before she had ascended and she had made a study of Demonic anatomy upon realizing that her sister would be one.

And her domain was Blood.

Cancer was normally impossible for an immortal, whether someone like her or someone that has simply become so powerful that their body no longer marched on toward death. The changes to the genetics of such people made it nigh impossible for anything to mutate. Gods and Demons didn't evolve so much as they self-evolved.

However, it could be afflicted and the Demons holding Lusca felt it now as their blood cells broke down, the marrow in their bones rotted, and they became in capable of carrying oxygen.

"Drop the tentacles," Naiki snapped.

And Lusca nodded ending her spell of summoned tentacles.

Which was when Naiki lashed out with a host of vacuum blades slicing into some of the Demons ahead of her. Some died, but most managed to resist enough only to be cut.

Which was when all the inflicted cuts on their body tore open as Naiki and Eija combined their Realm and Domain into a Torrent of Blood.

Taking a breath, Lusca let go of the wall and swayed back, sinking back into her normal form, into Kyoko's hands, looking again like a brunette pettanko girl.

Still several seemed to be resisting.

"We need to get out of here," Naiki said. "I just showed Tessa where we are!"

"Right," Eija said, stepping over toward Kyoko's family. "Follow me please, we don't want to be here."

"And where do you suggest we go?" the mother asked as Eija led them into the blood pool to the horror of their expressions.

"Kaname says Tessa knows where she wants us, Naiki," Eija said and then she was sinking into the blood with her charges.

The green-haired Demoness turned back toward Kyoko and Lusca, grabbing them and vanishing into smoke as the Demons ahead of her started to recover from the surprise of a Goddess and Demoness working together so well.

Then they discovered the pattern of Ainur strategy a moment later when that block of the neighborhood was practically wiped off the map.

* * *

Eija stepped up out of a blood patch on the floor and into a medical tent with her two passengers.

"Here we are, safe and sound," Eija said, sighing in relief and dusting herself off.

"How did we," the two people asked.

"Every Goddess can travel through a particular medium," Eija said. "I'm unfortunate enough for main to be blood. I suppose there could be worse."

She held back a wince or the scream of sadness she felt at the amount of swiftly approaching death around her.

"You really are a Goddess?" Kyoko's mother asked.

"For a few months now," Eija said.

"Then you can't die?" the father asked.

"No," Eija said sadly. "We can die. A lot of us have."

"You, Goddess," a tall fellow in Japanese Defense Force uniform said before any other questions could be asked. "You're Eija Satomi?"

"Yes, sir," Eija said snapping into attention.

"You're needed," he said. "You were supposed to be here already."

"My apologies," she said. "I was intercepted."

She turned to Kyoko's parents and bowed.

"I have to go now," she said.

"Can you just manipulate blood or can you do more?" the soldier asked.

"I can cast other spells now," Eija said. "But my own ability is quickest. It might be better to have someone else do the actual healing and let me preserve or replace the blood."

The two humans watched as the teenaged goddess walked off answering questions quickly and accurately, acting like a perfect young woman obeying her elders.

Despite the fact that she was a Goddess and the elder in question here was a human.

And then a burst of smoke appeared and out of it came there own daughter and the two Demons that had helped them with her.

"Are you okay, Kyoko?" Naiki asked quickly as the other girl's parents came around her.

"I'm fine, Lusca kept us safe," she said, nodding her head toward the shorter girl.

"Right," Naiki said, moving over to put her hands on Lusca's shoulders.

"Squee," Lusca said quietly, trying to restrain herself to lucidity as Naiki touched her.

"Lusca, you beautiful, creepy little lunatic stalker brunetter!"

"Huh?" Lusca asked.

"Okay, I know I shouldn't feed the stalker, but..."

And then Naiki kissed her firmly and pulled her tight for several long seconds.

"Awww," Kyoko said, reaching into her pocket to draw out her camera and catch an image of the shocked, melting expression on Lusca's face during the kiss.

Then Naiki pulled away, still holding Lusca's shoulders.

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you," Naiki said. "Wonderful timing."

"Uhhh.." Lusca said, questioningly. "You're welcome?"

Naiki winced and straightened up, letting go of Lusca's shoulders.

"Okay, I'm in trouble...a bit worse than normal...uh, wait here," she said. "Have someone look at you, you look a little more dazed and glassy eyed than normal. Kyoko?"

"We're fine," the girl said, limping forward to catch Lusca before the Demon girl's knees failed. "I guess you should be going."

Naiki vanished into a puff of smoke then.

Kyoko's father looked over at his daughter.

"Your Demon friends are..." he started to say.

"Naiki is bisexual," Kyoko said. "I think Lusca is Naiki-sexual."

"Are you...?" her mother started to ask.

"Mother, do you remember meeting my boyfriend?" she asked.

"She kissed me..." Lusca said in a awestruck voice as Kyoko sat her down and checked the bleeding cut from her head where her monster form was cut.

"And...?" Kyoko asked.

"She's not very good," the Kraken said, mystified.

"Well, she gropes and flirts a lot," Kyoko said. "But I wouldn't be surprised if that was her first kiss."

Which was when Lusca would have started hearing symphony orchestra if she had heard such before.

Kyoko turned her head a bit and thought back to something Naiki had said about "feeding the stalker".

"Did you just?"

"It's for their own good," Kyoko said.

* * *

"We'll have to find Balor again quickly," Thor said to the gathered Demons, Gods and Ainur in the tent with him. "There's no telling what sort of damage he can do if he's just running around free. He's far more powerful than the average category one. I'd almost put him in the category of the oldest of us."

"What about the Satomi girl," one of the human soldiers asked. "Shouldn't we be talking about a hostage situation here?"

"In all likelihood," Morrigan said grimmly, "she's already dead."

"She's not," Mara said, coming into the meeting, causing the Demons present to snap to a straight attention. "We got a message that her mother stepped in and both Satomi girls are safe."

"What are you doing here?" Thor asked. "Aren't you supposed to be watching your virus scratchers?"

"Kaname Chidori is supposed to be coming in," Mara said. "We were a bit short of people to pick her up since she was reported safe."

"Ranma Satomi fought Balor alone?" Morrigan asked.

"Yes," a voice said from the entrance and everybody turned to see Ranma walking in, looking heavily tired. "I fought him."

"Your family is incredibly lucky," Thor noted, nodding. "You don't happen to know where Balor is would you?"

Ranma nodded and moved forward to put a small pearl on the planning table.

"What's this," Morrigan asked.

"You asked where Balor is," Ranma said walking to the back of the tent to grab a bottled water.

"And what does the pearl have to do with that?" an Ainur asked.

"That's where he is," Ranma noted.

The collected war council and Mara turned to look at the pearl and back to Ranma who was eagerly drinking the water down.

"You sealed him in a pearl?" Morrigan said, bending down to pick it up.

"His soul anyway," the redhead noted. "I first undid the bonds of yin and yang so his body couldn't hold together."

Everybody looked at the pearl again.

"You see!" Mara snapped pointing at the various people that had teased her about being afraid of Ranma. "You see?"

"Mara, you're supposed to be getting Kaname," Ranma reminded her.

"Right, going," the Demoness of Smoke said.

* * *

Weapons designed for taking on formations and large vehicles were less useful against human sized opponents, but the battlefields in America showed a similar pattern to what was happening in Tokyo. Socrates Group and the American military persisted in operating by giving the Demons the stand-up fights they expected from dealing with Gods and other Demons for centuries.

And then they cut off the fights with massive ordnance.

"New York is going to be clear in the next hour, sir," O'Neil shouted into the feed so that Hammond nodded. "But I'm not going to want to see the repair bills."

"Understood, Colonel," Hammond said. "Get to it, help the army and marines secure the city, then move on to Chicago as soon as you can."

"Got it, sir," he said. "But from what I hear, that won't be too long either."

Hammond nodded and looked to the situation map as reports came in.

The hot spots on the United States were slowly calming down. Tokyo and England were likewise reporting to be gaining ground.

They had no reports yet from the Warsaw nations.

At least until the first missile launch was detected and the explosion ripped into one of the Soviet Union's member states, obliterating the city it was aimed at.

"My God," he said. "No offense."

"None taken," Hermes noted as they watched the report come in.

Another nuclear launch by the soviets fell flat, probably destroyed before it could reach its target by one of the powerful Demons the soviets were fighting.

"Anything you can do?" he asked.

"Give me a moment," Hermes said. "We've got several category ones in Yggdrasil now, they should be able to at least contain it."

"But..."

"But, that's sort of what made us run away the first time," he admitted.

"Wonderful," Hammond said.

Elsewhere, they were receiving confirmed reports of sections of Africa and South America that the Demons were taking hold in successfully, on into the Middle East. Small blips being conquered by individual Demons with less of an interest in extermination than others. Though most of the Demons around the world retreated back to Nifelheim as their attack was repulsed in many places.

He shook his head as he watched the situation develop.

* * *

The Venoms had become less than intimidating opponents of the late, but what was of most concern to Sousuke was that Amalgam was here at all. They had made one attempt on Kaname again, but with reports that she was out of reach, they were still in the area.

Perhaps they simply thought they could get a line on where Kaname was?

So far, in addition to moving in to be ending artillery for some fights against the Demons, he'd tracked and destroyed three Venoms and five Shadows.

"Urzu-7 here," he said. "Amalgam activity seems to be clearing out of the Jindai area."

"Affirmative," the Captain's voice said. "The Japanese and Americans confirm skirmishes as well. We think they're trying to take hold of Nekomi for some reason. Be advised, the Americans are trying to force a full breakthrough with the Japanese in support, we're tasked with securing the Norns and Whirlwind staff. Preferably they've already evacuated, but no reports yet. I want you on site for heavy support. A Venom is still a bit more than I want to pit an Ainur against alone."

"Affirmative," Sagara said. "Urzu-7 out. Al, keep an eye out for bogeys but we're going off search and destroy for now."

"Understood, Sergeant Sagara," the computer said.

Trusting in the computer to warn him of incoming enemies, Sousuke put on the speed of the Arbalest as he charged forward through the streets heading toward Nekomi. The line of Amalgam's attempts to hold the ground was obvious as Sagara started seeing a growing number of Japanese and American AS groups exchanging fire with a scattering of Shadows.

"This is Urzu-7 of Mithril," he broadcast. "I'm breaking the lines to secure the VIPs."

"Received Urzu-7," the response came. "We'll give you covering fire in 3 - 2 - 1..."

The area ahead of Sousuke was washed in the fire of shells and at least one lambda driver's aura on the other side, which Sousuke aimed directly for. His own machine's lambda driver cycling wildly as he reached back with a knife and then lashed it out in a Amaguriken through the machine.

He was surprised to find the enemy machine move out of the way and respond with a slashing lambda enhanced attack himself.

"Whoop!" the call over the radio declared. "You must be Mithril's golden boy!"

As the smoke cleared, Sousuke found that he was dealing with an altered Venom, several sections seemed to have been replaced with crystalline plates.

"I've been waiting for you," the rather more cheerful than he should have been voice declared.

* * *

"Come on, come on," Skuld muttered, moving to the next building, Sanya moving along behind her. "Why can't I find a simple puddle of water?"

"You're the one that wanted to show me that ice cream place," Sanya said. "Do you think we'll have another fight? I've never been able to handle myself like that before! I was like..."

"We're trying," Skuld said, "to either get to the temple and my sisters, or to a pool of water to get out of here. We're not looking for fights! I'm barely sixteen and you only look thirteen."

"I thought you'd saved the world before," Sanya said.

"And that was when I was with my sisters," Skuld reminded the girl. "Now help me look..."

They turned a corner to see a number of soldiers of various uniform types knocked about the street in the midst of the clear sign of explosives and one man standing in the center of it and turning to look back at them. Oddly, there were pantyhose tied around his arms.

There were no marks on his face, but Skuld could still tell he radiated power, probably more than either her or Sanya alone.

The man pulled out a pair of photographs from his pocket and looked it over.

"Well," he said. "Hello there. Miss Wodinsdottir. I've been looking for you."

He leaped forward out to grab Skuld as she froze in place. And then Sanya was there in front of her, thrusting a palm forward.

Tarou was surprised as his body touched Sanya's hand and all that kinetic energy funneled into her before being absorbed and reversed sending him flying backwards into the wall.

"OhhhHOHOHOHOHOHOHOO!" Sanya laughed loudly. "See what you get for crossing the path of Sanya San, the Pillar of Strength of the San branch! The Arrow that Cuts through the Valley! OhhhHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"

"Don't bully the dragon, Sanya," Skuld said, grabbing the girl's shoulder.

The man with the pantyhose pulled himself out of the rocky debris and stepped forward staggering a bit and shaking his head.

"All right," the man said. "Looks like I'll have to get a little more serious with you."

And he pulled out a canteen and poured it over his head, growing into a huge form like a minotaur with tentacles.

The creature flew forward and dropped downward on the little laughing girl and again, she caught him and slammed him into the nearest building and then into air across the street.

She walked into the center of the street and entered a stance.

"Come on and try, fiendish mortal!" she shouted with a smirk. "OhhhHOHOHOHO!"

Roaring out an angry moo, the minotaur reached over to grab a car and toss it out toward the little girl, who only chuckled as she grabbed the edge of the car coming in at her, swung it around and launched it back at Tarou sending him falling backwards and shaking his head dazedly.

Once upon a time, she thought she could lift just about anything. She knew she was strong, and that was all she needed to know. Ranma Satomi had shown her a little bit differently.

If it was moving, she could make it move faster and in different directions.

As long as she touched it.

Kinetic strength.

If it moved, she could lift it.

"Come on," Skuld shouted, stepping forward to grab Sanya and pull her away. "Let's go before something else happens."

"Hah! Don't worry," Sanya called out. "I'm invinci-!"

The sound of a gun shot cracked through the scene and Sanya crumpled aside eyes wide in shock as a bullet tore through her hip and slammed her against the wall.

"Sanya!" Skuld shouted, turning about to see a handful of dark clothed soldiers heading her way.

She reached into her pockets and tossed out several of her bombs before she felt several pin pricks and looked to see a trio of darts sticking out of her abdomen. And she was already passing out at that point.

Sanya tried to stand up, but her injury kept sending her falling back painfully as she bled freely. One of her sisters, with more resilient skin than her had come out less lucky. At least she had the benefit of some minimal training.

"Hey, Akira," one of the soldiers shouted toward Tarou. "Be useful beyond a decoy and handle the extra."

"You're not getting away!" Sanya shouted angrily, pushing herself up onto one leg and launching herself at one of the soldiers.

She was caught in mid air by a massive fist and sent flying across the scene. Frantically, she focused on slowing down as she flew and so struck the first wall with minimal pain beyond what the first strike and her bullet wound had given her.

Tarou charged forward and then kicked at the girl as she tried to stand again. Sanya pushed down on the foot and the monster spun out over her head into the building behind her and through it. The debris showering down on the girl.

Some of it was pushed aside, but at least one struck down into the back of her head, slamming her down barely conscious as Tarou righted himself.

He was chuckling to himself and reaching out for the girl when another form dropped down into place in front of Sanya.

A tall Chinese woman with purple hair and the strange facial marks he'd seen on some of the more powerful people around the battlefield Tokyo had become.

And he remembered this girl was one of four that had worked together to beat him once before.

"Still a lazy, useless piece of trash? You've never done anything with your power?" Shampoo asked as she held his hand idly in front of her. "Have you never bothered to train such that a wounded child with barely a month of basic training can trounce your hide and you have to depend on a lucky piece of debris?"

Granted it was basic training the way Shampoo and Ranma thought of basic, but Shampoo was not of a perspective to make that point.

The monster form of Tarou snarled and he tried to lean forward.

"Oh please," Shampoo said. "I don't have time for this."

Shampoo's facial marks flared.

"Moko Takabisha," she said angrily.

And the blast of chi that washed out of her tore through Tarou and sent him tumbling backwards down the street before landing in a charred and bleeding mass and slumping down.

Immediately, Shampoo turned about to kneel at Sanya's side and start looking her over and placing pressure on the girl's bullet wound.

Shampoo reached up to her ear and tapped the device there.

"Hello, would whoever is listening on the other end of this contraption be so kind as to send a healer or doctor here immediately," she said tersely. "I have an injured child in dire ne..."

She paused as Eija Satomi's head poked up out of the pool of Sanya's blood and grab hold of the girl, immediately, the bleeding stopped and Shampoo noted some color coming back into Sanya's cheeks.

"I have her, Shampoo-san," Eija said quickly.

"Excellent," the Amazon said as the two girls vanished down into the pool of blood. "Somewhat disturbing, but excellent. Hello, thank you to the other end of this thing, note I have a piece of trash to be collected."

She walked over to Tarou and kicked him in the head as he started to stir.

"Bring hot water to make the load smaller," she added. "Or I might just dispose of it now."

Unfortunately, Sanya was all but unconscious and Shampoo had not arrived in time to see Skuld taken.

* * *

Gates chuckled as he rolled out of the way of the Arbalest's attack and then dodged inward.

"Oh no, no!" he said. "You're not getting away from me!"

And he shoved his shoulder into the Arbalest as it tried to get in past him and around to cut off Gates' maneuvering.

Sousuke for his end, grimaced bitterly as his opponent kept trying to push them into parts of Nekomi that his sensors implied there were still civilians present.

It made things more than a little difficult as his opponent showed no sign of hesitance for cutting loose with the lambda driver dangerously close to civilians. Sousuke found most of what he was doing was trying stretch out his own field to contain Gates'.

"Do you like the new model?" Gates asked in a whoop. "It's called Enkidu. I have no idea what that means, but it certainly is powerful and fun to pilot."

He chuckled wildly as he trailed a line of raw undirected lambda driver power along across his knife, dancing ahead to slice through one of the surrounding buildings. Then the Arbalest reached out to force the knife to stop and send the Enkidu stumbling backward.

"Or it would be if you didn't keep getting in the way!" Gates shouted loudly.

"What the hell are you even doing here?" Sousuke demanded.

"We're looking for something, of course," Gates said. "Not that I really care all that much, though I hear it's something of an interesting shape. I may just want to play with it later."

The Enkidu was powerful, Sousuke noted, wielding more power than the Arbalest was, even accounting for Sousuke. However, it was raw and untrained, just flailing about randomly. Like the Venoms only more so.

Gates came in again, pressing his power directly against Sousuke's and then Sousuke let himself shift aside, keeping his focus and giving ground creatively as Gates pushed his machine mercilessly.

"Time, Al?" he asked.

"He have surpassed the reported operating time of the Venom lambda driver," the computer noted. "AS designated Enkidu apparently has superior cooling measures."

Sousuke dodged his AS aside again as Gates whooped and pushed in.

"Parameters for using Silmaril access through the Arbalest lambda driver," Sousuke demanded.

"Untested," Al responded. "The lambda driver for the Arbalest does not have the same settings as the Scirocco which was designed for that purpose. Result, uncertain."

"What about when I rebuilt you before?" Sousuke asked.

"Power operated on the Arbalest," Al noted. "Power did not move through the Arbalest's circuits. Ability to handle full recorded energies of Ainur pilot, untested."

"Well, we're going to..." and he stopped as a third voice interrupted their discussion.

"Amalgam, Mithril, assorted militaries in the area," Gauron's voice said smoothly over the radio. "I assume you know who this is."

Gates paused as well as Sousuke in response to the voice.

"I was wondering," Gauron said. "Just what the feuding Testarossas were up to in this battlefield. Or is Leonard even involved in this one, hmm I wonder. It's not like they would trust him again after the Meridia debacle."

"Gauron," Sousuke said grimmly. "Where are you."

"Gayron! Gayron! Gayron! What is the big fucking deal about Gayron? I'm right here, about to fuck you up?" Gates demanded psychotically.

"Perhaps it's my charming personality," Gauron said and Sousuke thought he detected a rasp in the man's voice. "In any case, imagine my surprise when I recalled an old bit of info from my old friend Kalinin mentioning Miss Chidori as a 'prophet'. And then another piece of information, there's a Goddess of the Future who's currently not in full bloom of her powers. Now this little two pronged attack makes sense."

* * *

"Oh God," Tessa said quietly, face paling. "Do we have confirmation on the Norns yet?"

"We have a confirmed report of Urd with the Gods in the fighting," Mardukas said. "Belldandy and Keiichi Morisato are secured. Megumi Morisato is with Geisthexe already. We do not have confirmation on Chihiro Fujimo yet. There is one thing however. Sanya San was taken to triage by Eija Satomi with a bullet wound."

"Skuld was watching her," Tessa noted taking a deep breath.

* * *

"Well, last I heard you got yourself blown up and nibbled on," Gates noted. "So what are you going to do?"

"Why, the same thing Leonard was probably planning on," Gates said. "I'll got someone else to do it for me. I understand they've intercepted your little akira and his handlers just perfectly."

Sousuke snarled angrily and lashed out at Gates, standing in his way, knocking the Enkidu backwards.

"Damn you," Sousuke shouted. "You're not going to get away this time..."

"Why, Kashim," Gauron's voice noted. "I'm not even in Tokyo, let everyone know, I've got the prize and if Leonard or Amalgam or anybody else wants her, they're going to have to come find her."

Sousuke growled as he searched through the neighborhood, looking for any Gods he could find, ignoring it as Gates started to get to his feet behind him.

"Where are you going Mithril boy!" Gates demanded firing out at Sousuke as the other pushed forward.

One of a set of crystals registered a small shimmer of blue energy, sensing a God or Goddess and he oriented himself so that the shimmer grew and made the effort to catch up to what must have been Skuld being taken away by Gauron's agents.

"You're not just leaving me in the lurch like this!" Gates shouted.

And then Sousuke's instruments read a massive upsurge of Mana as huge glowing circles appeared up and down the street around him. And out of that came a host of bluish, strange ASes like when he's only seen once before.

"What in the he..." Gates started to say before the Enkidu was attacked by three of the Mantles.

His lambda driver's aura held up for a few seconds against the Mantles, each of them bearing more power than him, but he lacked the skill and subtlety of his opponents.

And the second Enkidu suffered the same fate as the first: killed by the Gods.

"Get ready, Al," Sousuke snapped. "You're getting as much power as I can use!"

Several of the Mantles turned to look at the Arbalest and he recognized the formation of psychic energies shaped into spells or other effects.

Power flooded into the Arbalest's form, brushing aside the first two attacks that were directed toward him and Sousuke charged forward, stabbing his knife through the momentarily gone field of the first shocked Mantle destroying it in a blink.

"5-3+2-32-30+2-302-151+151-151151..." Sousuke rolled the numbers off his lips quickly.

As he finished and the numbers swirling about the Arbalest coalesced, a massive fire struck downward and spread out in an arch washing over the Mantles immediately about Sousuke.

"5-3+2-32-15+17-1517..." Sousuke rushed through and as he finished a rush of shrapnel rose up into air and outward away from him.

The various Mantles around him rose their battle auras up, but several burst leaks and Sousuke remembered that the God ASes were essentially living machines.

Reaching outward, he reached through the Network for one of two back doors they had into the other Networks.

"Eija, I need your help here," he whispered in his own rendition of a white magic prayer.

And the damaged ASes about him started springing heavy links, their battle aura breaking down as he passed through them.

"Warning," Al said, "Stresses beyond designed limits, continued operation in such situations are limited."

"I understand," Sousuke shouted. "We're going as long as we can!"

"All Mithril and Psyche forces, this is Captain Testarossa," Tessa called out. "Be advised, we are the only point of invasion for the Gods. Again, they're all coming down here. Hold as long as you can, give us as much time as possible to clear as many civilians as possible. We're waiting for the call from the Japanese to retreat."

Sousuke grimaced and rolled aside of another attack and winced as an internal explosion split through one of his AS's arms.

"Uploading system use readings and telemetry for later analysis," Al said. "System failure eminent."

"I got it," Sousuke said angrily.

He lunged forward and slashed into the torso of another Mantle.

"Captain Testarossa, advise missile strike on current location," Sousuke said.

"We can't pull you out, Sergeant Sagara," Tessa responded. "All the Gods and Demons are busy right now evacuating civilians. I'm going to give you permission to try out teleporting."

"Understood," Sousuke said, typing several buttons. "Searching for coordinates now."

"Cruise missiles on the way," Tessa noted calmly.

A Mantle lunged in and pushed in at the Arbalest, taking out a chunk of the leg just before Sousuke stabbed downward, shattering the mana-field with his own Ainur chi enhanced through the failing Arbalest.

"Download complete," Al noted.

"5-3+2-32-18+13-1813..." Sousuke called out.

A circular burst of energy swirled around him and swallowed him up, leaving the cockpit empty before the lambda driver failed and blew out in a wash of wild chi, smashing through the battle auras of several of the Mantles around him.

And the cruise missiles hit.

* * *

Sousuke appeared on the Labyrinth, panting and shaking his head, seeing a mass of people around him and more coming by the moment.

"Sousuke," Kaname's voice called out, pushing through the crowds to reach him. "Oh thank goodness!"

She moved to his side and hugged around him.

"Kaname," he said wearily, and nervously returning her hug. "Where's..."

"She's with the medics, come on," Kaname said.

"Right," Sousuke said, moving with Kaname toward where the medics had tried to put together a triage in a corner of one crystal cave.

Eija was there, moving in and out of a pool of blood, her own based on the slice on her arm, and pulling people out of the battle beyond.

She took a moment to walk over and hug Sousuke herself and then stepped back composing herself.

"I have to go back," she said. "There are still people in danger."

"Hey!" Naiki shouted as she appeared in a puff of smoke. "Ainur, you teleport now! Everybody up and grab people, Tessa's orders.

"We're running out of room," a voice called out.

And then another set of Ainur appeared in a swirl of liquid energy.

"Labyrinth," the woman in the center said, smiling. "Elizabeth Weir, Atlantis stands ready to take on refugees."

"Atlantis?" Naiki noted.

* * *

It wasn't much longer before teleporting in and out of Japan and Tokyo especially simply didn't work. Those outside who could see energies watched as a curtain of mana rose up to lock in the country, apparently what was making entering by non-physical means impossible.

Tessa examined the satellite and aerial reconnaissance grimly as she noted the Mantles dotting the island.

"That must be all the rebel Gods," someone said as the counts ran up. "What are they doing?"

"Hostages," Mardukas said.

"What?" someone asked.

"Aphrodite and her beauty contest let most of the Asgard civilians escape," Mardukas explained. "Zeus knows he doesn't have the raw power, he wants a hostage populace."

"Why Japan?" someone asked.

"Unsteady us," Tessa said. "So far, we've been acting out of Tokyo. He probably hoped to wipe out some of our leaders."

* * *

Hayes looked at the map and shook his head.

From the looks of things, the Soviet Union had launched half of its nuclear weapons, but they had been successfully contained or disabled or sent out of the atmosphere.

Only a handful had actually landed, all within the bounds of Soviet Union in places Demons had been known to be invading.

"They tried to nuke everything," Hayes said.

"Fortunately it was just one country," Hermes said. "Otherwise we'd have had to evacuate a few thousand years again. There's still going to be issues coming out of the bombs that did land."

"A hell of a country," Hammond noted.

"Looks like your father there took advantage of the confusion," Hayes noted, indicating the reports as Japan was lost.

"Yes, he has," Hermes noted with a frown. "I'm surprised he's up and moving so soon. Then again, I suppose he could have had other people do the grunt work."

"What's had him incapacitated, by the way?" Hayes asked.

"Aphrodite," the God of Messages said. "Apparently, she killed a few rebels too. That's what we've got from some of our prisoners in our own skirmishes."

"How'd she do that?" Hammond asked.

"We haven't heard specifics, but she was Goddess of Carnal Pleasure," Hermes noted. "How do you expect she did it."

"Hmmm," Hayes said, turning toward Hammond. "Can you get O'Neil on the line?"

"Right away, sir," Hammond noted, gesturing.

It wasn't long before they were treated to the image of O'Neil staring at them from behind some cover.

"Chicago's just about clear, sir," he said. "Anything else you need from us?"

"Well, we have some important information to pass on," Hayes said before Hammond could say anything. "But first I'd like one of your reaction to something."

"Go ahead, sir," O'Neil said. "I'll do my best to be as uniquely me under fire as possible."

"Good," Hayes said. "We've heard we think Aphrodite, the Goddess of Sex, killed some of the enemy leaders."

"Good for her, sir," O'Neil said. "I'm kind of in the middle of doing the same here."

"She killed...how many?" he asked turning to Hermes.

"We've had reports that it was anywhere from forty to eighty," Hermes said. "And three hundred or so incapacitated for a time."

"Damn," O'Neil said. "How'd she do that."

"She's apparently the Goddess of Sex," Hayes noted.

"Permission to make Aphrodite an enemy, sir," O'Neil said without missing a beat.

"Ahh, right, that's about what I was looking for," Hayes noted. "Give the colonel the rundown on the news, Hammond."

* * *

"This morning sees the world very different from the way we thought it was," the reporter on the screen said. "Countries on every continent have sustained attacks, the Soviet Union might very well be a nuclear wasteland, whole countries have been conquered and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people have died on all sides."

She walked to the side and looked back behind her where signs of battle where seen everywhere from the damaged buildings and the injured people sitting in tents.

"Last week," the reporter said. "I reported to you about how some of us in the media have known about some of the things that are now public for some time. We kept secret to keep the public from panicking and striking out at the people that yesterday were in the front lines of defending us against these attacks."

She took a few more steps to the side and let the camera take a broader view of the landscape around her.

"But what about the beings that are attacking our planet," she said. "And some of whom count among our defenders, we got a chance to talk to some of them in the wake of yesterday's battles."

The scene switched out to find the reporter sitting across from three figures sitting across from her.

"I'm Julia Donovan," the woman said. "And with me here is Alastor, Demon, Benten, Goddess and a representative of one of our own, Dr. Elizabeth Weir."

"It is good to meet you," the Japanese woman noted idly.

"I'm pleased to be here," the vaguely Mediterranean man said with a short bow.

"Hello," the tall brunette woman said with a smile. "I hope this will be a chance to make things clear."

"Let's start with the question most people are asking," Julia said. "Are these people attacking the Earth because you came here?"

"No," Alastor said. "They're attacking because you are here. We were in the way so we were hit first."

"Can you explain what you mean by that?" Julia asked.

Staring into the TV as it tried to calmly portray the situation, a number of people stood or sat in a local bar as the conversation moved on. As the sequence went to adds, footage from various battle sites around the globe.

It ended with the image of a young Demoness clerk dying in a prison.

"I don't see how we can trust these...aliens," someone noted. "Look at that girl. They're trying to make her out to be like some martyr."

"Her name was Rene," a woman said. "She was born nine months after Woodstock. Her father was a human who died in a car accident I was too drink or high too see coming. She was the only daughter I had in ten thousand years of life and the last thing I said to her before those bastards attacked us was that she'd never amount to anything."

She stood up and finished her drink, leaving some money on the counter.

"And they keep playing her apologizing to me," she said quietly, walking out the door.

Angrily, the man she had interrupted followed her out and grabbed her by the shoulder. Glaring into her red-marked face.

"Do you think I'm going to buy that you're just like us?" he asked. "You're a Demon, aren't you, what makes you think I believe you have the same emotions and you not just playing mind games with us to lead us into damnation."

"Think what you want," Illujanka said. "I don't care. I'm going to go wait for an assignment and if I'm lucky, It'll be something that will let me die half as well as she did."

* * *

"Let me go you thug!" Sayoko shouted angrily.

"Yell at me all you want, woman," the God escorting her down below said with a smirk. "Your powers are bond and I don't think you even have the slightest idea..."

Sayoko turned about to glare at the man, walked up into his face and stamped her high fashion heels down hard into his foot.

"Gah!" the soldier snapped, his hand came back and slashed forward to smash her across the mouth. "You wench! Don't you know who you are dealing with?"

Sayoko spat out a bit of blood and pulled herself straight to stare down into his face with a smirk.

"I'm an exotic beautiful woman you're collecting as a tribute for your boss," she said smiling in a superior manner.

She turned her head aside and displayed the bruise forming on her cheek and at the corner of her mouth.

"Does Zeus like his women damaged?" she asked. "The way I read the myths, he fancies himself a ladies man."

A look of fear started to come over the God's face.

"So," Sayoko said. "You're not going to lay a finger on me again. Understand?"

"You'll pay for this!" the God snapped, bringing the woman to the door and pushing her in before undoing the ropes on her wrists.

The door closed behind Sayoko and everybody within could feel the power tracing across the door outside, barring it from supernatural exit or entree.

Looking around her as she rubbed her wrists, Sayoko was unsurprised to find herself surrounded by other women in what would otherwise be considered a luxurious suite.

Mostly around her were other human women, though all very beautiful in different ways. There was an American air force officer, a police officer and a few what looked like pop idols or want to be pop idols. Sayoko did see three other women with marks on their faces. Two Goddesses and a Demoness.

"You're one of those new Immortals," the Demoness said. "How'd you get caught?"

"I came back to look for a friend," Sayoko said irritably. "I was trying to leave when that whatever happened."

"Dimensional wall," one of the Goddesses said, a girl with long gray hair streaked with golden bronze hair. "We ran into it ourselves, woke up here. You?"

"About five hours ago," Sayoko muttered sitting down. "So what happens now?"

"Zeus starts going through us, one by one," the other Goddess noted. She was dark in both complexion and hair, with bright red eyes. "If it's your first time with Zeus, you'll probably get pregnant. He'll probably send you on your way after that."

"It doesn't work like that," a woman said from elsewhere in the room.

"With Zeus, it does," the Goddess said.

"Why haven't you people sealed him already?" the Demoness demanded angrily.

"How did Balor get away with just about wiping out every Demon death seer in existence for five thousand years?" one of the two Goddesses responded.

"Let's focus here," Sayoko said. "Starting with names, I'm Sayoko Mishima, Ainur. Don't ask Ainur of what, last I heard from the people in charge of such things, we haven't set that stuff up yet."

"I'm Melinoe DisPater and this is my niece Nyx DisPater," one of the two Goddesses said.

"Meryl Streit," the Demoness said. "Nobody important."

"DisPater," Sayoko said. "I've met Persephone and Eija."

"Really, you met Eija Satomi?" Nyx said. "She sealed our mother's soul away."

The Demoness stood up and stared down at Nyx angrily.

"You're Hecate's daughter!" she said loudly. "Your mother started all this! Her plan killed thousands of us and you and the humans! Millions even!"

"And I'm not her!" Nyx snapped.

Sayoko stepped forward and got in between the two, pushing Meryl to sit back down.

"Focus here," Sayoko said. "Are all you Gods as predictable as the one that brought me here?"

"You go too long without renewing," Melinoe said. "You get narrow minded, you live in a fantasy world, decisions seem random but follow patterns that get thicker and thicker and don't change even if the world does."

"So the short answer is, the really old ones," Sayoko decided.

"There aren't many who can handle just living," Nyx said. "Some humans, Hild, Kami-sama, but its really rare."

"Wait, what do you mean humans?" the air force lieutenant said.

"Physical agelessness is normal for one of us," Melinoe explained. "But the mind sort of deteriorates. Now if you met a human who was more than two hundred years old, didn't look like they were getting any older than twenty or thirty. That person earned immortality, they weren't just born with it. They can live on and on and on without having to reincarnate."

"They say Hild was sixty-five million years old and never reincarnated," Meryl noted in a reverent tone. "She just changed her form to match what the rest of us were."

"Kami-sama was the same, except the age. I can count on one hand the people whose name's I know fit in that category," Nyx noted. "The rest of us have to either die or reincarnate before we go insane."

"So, you two sound like you've had experience with the Zeus guy before," the woman in the police uniform said.

Melinoe reached up to lift a streak of golden hair.

"He raped my mother," she said.

"Wait, are you saying he's your..." Sayoko let it trail off as the girl nodded. "What are you here for if you're..."

"Oh like he cares," Melinoe said. "I'm pretty. That's what he cares about."

* * *

Skuld found herself waking up in a small, dry brick room with the occasional cracks in the walls. She was still feeling a little groggy as she came too, wondering just how they knew what sort of drugs to use to put her under with out killing her.

If she'd seen the reports on some of Kodachi's facilities that had been raided during and since her final destruction, she would have known that the parasite had been researching God and Demon anatomy for Amalgam and her own purposes.

"Wha..." she asked blankly, trying to move her hands around and finding them bound behind her. "What? Sanya!"

She sat straight up and looked around worriedly, taking in her position and feeling that sense of worry, mostly for the girl she had been watching.

"You're awake I see," a man said and he stepped into the light then.

He was a tall man with olive complexion and pock-marked face.

"Who are you?" Skuld demanded.

"I'm you're babysitter for the moment," the man said, and he felt rather demeaned by the fact.

"If you don't tell me who you are," Skuld said nervously. "I'll..."

"You'll what?" the man asked. "From what I've heard, you're not that good at defending yourself with raw power, seem to take rather a lot of pride in using technology instead."

"I'm still..." Skuld started to protest.

"An immature, young Goddess," he cut her off. "And currently hidden in a safe spot in the middle of a Japan crawling with your people's rebel population."

Skuld's eyes widened.

"I believe their leader is named Zeus," the man noted, watching Skuld's face turn white. "Now, if you really want to try, I'm sure you could do something to stun me at least briefly. The question is whether or not you're close enough to one of these criminals to attract their attention when you do. And then can you get out of those bonds?"

"And what are you going to do with me?" she asked.

"Me, nothing," he said. "It's everybody else that seems to want a hold of you little girl. I'm just exchanging a favor for a favor here. Now, we've already had a bit of a snag, what with our exit out of this country being rather effectively cut off. Can't use a gate, they're not working. Can't fly, we'd get smeared across the sky. There's no way I'm taking you onto a boat where you'd only need a few seconds to dive away once we got away from Japan."

"So we're just going to sit here then?" Skuld asked.

"Until my client follows through on his end of things," the man noted. "Now, be a good girl and sit there while we see about finding food."

* * *

Kasumi moved about the small lava chamber, thankful that Ranma had told her where it was and that she and Tofu had been able to get so many people inside it.

"There's not enough room," she sighed idly.

"We've got some," Tofu said. "Do you know if..."

"Nabiki is out this time at least," Kasumi said. "Akane took her just before the Immortals were locked here or out."

It was at this point that Kasumi mildly wished that she had accepted the chance to become Ainur herself instead of "waiting until there was no one more deserving waiting."

She looked around again.

There were a number of people from the area around Jindai and from her own neighborhood picked up on the way to this hiding place while the Gods were running about in their machines. But there were also a handful of human soldiers of mixed commands.

A human Korean woman spoke with an female Ainur and a Demon along with those military personnel. But they didn't have any other Immortals with them at the moment.

And there was one other person of note.

Kasumi walked across the cave that had once been a serial killer's lair and bent down beside Nodoka Saotome, checking her vitals and temperature again. Careful not to wake her. The pain had started on her sometime in the early morning, but it only seemed to be getting worse, despite what she and Tofu could do.

It was apparently directly in her aura. She remembered hearing something of an explanation from Moloch earlier.

"It's a divine curse," he had said. "Perhaps one of the Gods above laid it on her."

When she'd suggested that to Nodoka last night, however, she'd gotten a rather cryptic answer.

"It's older than that," the older woman had said.

* * *

"I know I saw them take some Immortals and other soldiers prisoner," Wraith noted. "If we can get to them we could increase our ability to aid a counter attack. Not to mention any soldiers we can find who got clear."

"Every one of your Ainur has useful skills in some regard," Moloch said, indicating the young woman beside Wraith, "because so far you've been giving soldiers and other people the first priority. But every Demon or God we find is just as likely to be a civilian."

"No," Wraith said. "Because there was time for several trips back and forth and I don't think either Geisthexe, Thor or Testarossa would allow civilians to make repeat trips. Even if some did, the likely answer is that any of you on this side whose not an enemy is trained to fight."

Moloch nodded.

"And there will be Shadows," he said. "But the Gods will know that, they'll be hunting for them."

"Can they find this place?" Wraith asked.

"I could have been standing twenty feet from the trail and not noticed it," Moloch said. "It was already well hidden before whatever Satomi did to it. Is this one of her safehouses?"

"I imagine so," the intelligence operative noted. "So, first step, we need intelligence. We need to know what's up there."

"I can go," the Ainur noted.

"Not during the day, Seina," Wraith noted. "We need to minimize your and Moloch's risk of capture."

"Nor you, Wraith," Moloch noted.

"Pardon me?" the woman demanded. "Are you telling me how to do my job?"

"I merely note that our current enemy is likely having his soldiers on the look out for beautiful women for no other reason than that they are beautiful women," Moloch noted.

Wraith narrowed her eyes.

"So, we need someone who is rather less than noticeable and still human, preferably male," Wraith noted.

"Ahem," a voice interrupted them.

And they turned to look at Tofu.

* * *

A giant bluish AS walked down the street outside the school, scanning the area and missing it as two teens, one Ainur and one human, stuck their heads up into the windows after it passed and then hid back down.

"This is your fault, woman," Issei noted. "If you had not been so hard to find."

"I was hiding, Issei-kun," Mizuki said in a pleading tone. "I was supposed to be hard to find."

"What are we doing here anyway?" Issei asked.

"Eija said her mother made a hideaway somewhere on campus," the other teen noted quickly. "That's why I'm here when everybody else is home. By the way, do you know where my family is?"

"They were easy to find and get out," the martial artist said. "It's you that was impossible."

"Sorry for trying to stay out of the way," Mizuki noted petulantly.

"So where's this hideout?" Issei demanded.

"I'm not really sure," the girl said. "Eija was kinda whispering so no one would here and I'm not entirely sure she was supposed to be telling us, so I didn't really listen, cause then I'd probably tell someone and she'd get in trouble...yadda yadda yadda."

Issei grimaced and smacked a palm into his face.

"You couldn't have just not talked about it?" he asked.

"This is safer," Mizuki said idly. "Now it was something about something Naiki knocked down."

Mouse's son froze.

"I know where that is," he said.

A couple minutes later, they were standing at the sight that had once been the karate club's dojo. Which now only seemed to consist of a few remaining timbers of the building's foundation.

"Any instructions on how to find the hiding place?" Issei asked.

"Look for butterflies?" the girl said shrugging.

A sound and a glimpse of a distant Mantle had them both staring quickly around the ruins until Issei tripped over a corner of a stone of some sort.

"What the heck is that doing there?" he demanded.

Mizuki bent down and started brushing at the dirt, uncovering a large slap of thick stone buried under dirt and sod, a symbol of a butterfly etched into it.

"Hey, here's the butterfly," she said starting to trace it.

"What kind of hideout makes you lift a stone out of the..." Issei stopped as Mizuki finished tracing the butterfly and the stone vanished underneath them, dropping them down into the hollowed out space within.

As they fell down, the stone reappeared above them, complete with dirt and sod.

Sitting up from an unpleasant (for Issei) tangle between a very happy, clingy girl and a martial artist, the two teens found themselves in the first room of what looked to be a small complex under the school.

A complex stocked with...stuff.

"How paranoid is this woman?" Issei wondered as he looked around.

* * *

Nodoka slept and dreamed, remembering the battle that had started last night and when she had been taken to the first aid tents to be looked over.

She hadn't been surprised to see a familiar face, but the specific face was surprising.

The pale-skinned girl. The one whose other grandmother had offered a peach several weeks previous. Irritably, Nodoka had stepped back out of the girl's line of sight and set herself to watching what the abomination was doing.

And the first thing shocked her as the girl set out a plastic tarp and cut a line into her hand to bleed over it. The injury seemed to close quickly and the amount of blood, even now, had seemed thoroughly unrealistic to the length of time it had bled.

But what happened next was the girl stepped forward and sank impossibly down into the pool of blood, returning quickly with an injured soldier and calling out for medics. It was clear to watch that she was doing something herself with the people she pulled out of the pool of blood.

Sitting very still, Nodoka watched quietly after that as the girl retrieved the wounded and talked with the soldiers and doctors well past the point civilians were being called to evacuate.

In fact, it wasn't until the tall, blonde form of a young man came along to her side and grabbed her shoulder.

"Eija, we need to go," he said.

"But there are still people to recover," she protested.

"But the doctors are already evacuating. Come on, little sister," he said simply. "We get started again on the other side."

Reluctantly the girl nodded and let the young man, her brother?, catch hold of her hand and both vanished.

Nodoka wondered how she had managed to sit close on hand without them or anyone else noticing, one single old woman sitting quietly out of the way in the midst of haste and chaos.

Perhaps it was fate.

Perhaps it was punishment for not speaking up then.

Idly in her dreams, Nodoka considered that she may have missed an opportunity.

* * *

Tessa looked about the central corridor of the city of Atlantis and the people walking two and from it, her arms were crossed politely behind her back and she was taking it all in.

_This place is huge!_ Naiki told her. _There whales and kinda shark things out here too._

_Compared to Nifelheim?_ Tessa asked.

_I don't know, about the same in the city part,_ the Demoness said. _Thinking about doing some hunting for a bit._

_Most people call it fishing when it's sea life,_ the Ainur noted.

_Most people aren't me,_ Naiki noted.

_I'd rather, and I think your mother and Mara would rather,_ Tessa said. _That you get back to this city. I believe you were grounded._

She felt Naiki wince.

_I was stupid,_ the thought was very quiet.

Tessa wandered over toward one of the windows and looked out toward the ocean, casting through a quick series of numbers to zoom in and see Naiki lounging on the surface.

_You almost got yourself and your sister killed,_ Tessa noted. _Almost let Balor escape. And now you're swimming around in an alien sea talking about eating fish before hearing whether or not they are poisonous. I swear, Naiki, if you do anything else like that...if you don't die, I'm going to emulate Lucy Van Pelt and subject you to a slide show of your faults._

_Why do I get stuck with all the people who tell me what to do?_ the Demoness asked. _My mother, Geisthexe-san, you._

_Act a little more self-controlled,_ Tessa noted, _and you might find less external controls applied. You can't be a violent, tumultuous, overwhelming flow all the time._

Tessa blinked as the water around Naiki bulged and something started aiming toward the Demoness.

_Naiki, you said there were sharks?_

_Don't worry, it's a small one trying to scare me..._

And then a set of tentacles erupted out of the water and gripped whatever it was swimming along the surface and dragged it down, much to Tessa's relief and Naiki's annoyance.

_Ack! She followed me again!_

And then there was a pair of bursts of smoke as Tessa shook her head. There was no way that Lusca had been anywhere near Naiki in the water without Naiki knowing.

"Did...did everyone just see that?" a man's shocked voice called out, pointing at a monitor and then out the window. "Was that a giant squid?"

"Two of the Demons were playing in the water," Tessa noted.

"I thought they were all human!" the man, a rather excitable looking Ainur noted.

"They can change shape," Tessa noted.

"Okay, right," the man said then taking in Tessa and her uniform. "Uhh, who are you? Wait, you're the secretary, aren't you?"

Tessa sighed and started to open her mouth.

Another person walking up then, a man in his late twenties or early twenties, somewhat disheveled and with a rather bland look on his face.

"Rodney, I can hear you screaming all the way down the hall," he said. "Now, have you seen our visitor yet? She was supposed to be coming in any time."

"Excuse me," Tessa noted calmly.

"Just a moment, kid," the second man said politely to her before turning back to Rodney. "Besides the secretary, anything?"

"Aren't we supposed to have a picture or description at all besides Colonel O'Neil's 'uniquely unreal'?" Rodney asked. "I mean, come on Shepard, Teyla met her for goodness sakes. And we probably got a look at her mind for a bit when we did this thing."

He pointed at his forehead.

"Any side effects by the way?" Shepard asked. "Head feel like it's going to explode or something."

"No, not so far," Rodney noted.

"Anyway," Shepard noted. "Teyla called her a 'truly graceful lady', you said O'Neil's. All Teal'c would say was that she was 'indeed most impressive'. And the eggheads over there started talking about her physics and engineering work or her references to Lord of the Rings and the 'symbolic nature of choosing a set of images that were created by humans independently of influence by other species'."

"So no useful descriptions," Rodney noted.

As they spoke, Captain Teletha "Tessa" Testarossa stood behind them getting rapidly frustrated. Again she wondered why so many people had trouble believing she was a military commander. It couldn't just be the age, Sergeant Sagara was sixteen and no one had trouble believing he was a soldier.

She put her hands behind her back patiently after pushing her long lavender hair out of the way, displaying the green Ainur marks. Perhaps if they saw she was an Ainur, they'd realize she wasn't the secretary. That was a particularly disturbing mistake given what had happened to her secretary last week in the siege at Meridia.

Killed by a traitor who had been deep in Tessa's trust. One of the people that had died for Tessa's massive trap to work out completely.

"I got the sense that there was some sort of joke to it," Shepard said. "I swear that Teal'c character was smirking at me. And I know O'Neil was laughing at me when I asked."

"Really, so she could just walk up without us recognizing her and listening us talk about some nonsense or another," McKay noted. "That's a hilarious joke."

"Excuse me, gentlemen," Tessa noted. "I believe..."

"All right, all right," Shepard said, sighing. "I'm sorry, we'll take you to where the Mithril people are so you can relay messages."

"Actually..." Tessa started to say. "Actually, that'll work to start I suppose."

"All right, then," Shepard noted, gesturing casually for Tessa to follow him. "McKay, if you want to come along, maybe there's something techy in whatever news she has."

"Right, right," McKay said. "Let's go."

They walked down a couple of hallways and turned at a door that opened up onto a large room, McKay and Shepard walking in ahead of Tessa, chatting.

Standing across the room, Naiki was standing staring at the door intently, a suppressed grin on her face as Tessa entered the room and there was an immediate reaction from the milling Mithril soldiers.

"Captain on deck!" Mao shouted, snapping to standing. "Attention!"

Rodney stared ahead, a completely lost and confused expression on his face as he took in what had been a collection of assorted milling mercenaries and suddenly had transformed into the model of military discipline and decorum.

Beside him, Shepard froze and closed his eyes tight in surprise, mouth held open in mid sentence. As Rodney stared at the Mithril soldiers trying to figure out exactly what was going, he slowly turned to look at Tessa smiling in a pleased manner at the soldiers as she walked forward gracefully toward the much taller man at the head of the group.

"Lieutenant Groseaux," she said mildly. "At ease please."

"Sergeant Major," the lieutenant noted.

"Soldiers, at ease," Mao called out, and the ranks smoothly switched over.

"Oh God, she's her," Rodney said meekly.

At which point Naiki burst out laughing and fell back to the floor, holding her stomach.

"Miss Satomi," Tessa noted sourly. "If you would please."

"I'm sorry, Tessa," Naiki said working to control herself and calm down. "Really, I am."

Tessa nodded and turned back to her soldiers.

"Sergeant Major Melissa Mao," she said. "Step forward, please."

Mao stepped forward and turned about to come up to where Tessa stood, before snapping a salute.

Behind Tessa, Shepard had entered first attention and then at ease in a hurry, reacting instinctively to the show of military respect in the room.

"Captain Testarossa," she said.

"She's a kid," McKay said.

Irritably, Shepard snapped out a hand and bumped McKay on the shoulder.

"Oh, right," McKay said, getting into something of a cross between attention and at ease, some of the Mithril soldiers glaring at him.

"I have word from the Council," Tessa said. "You are, as of this moment, Second Lieutenant Melissa Mao and officially second in command of the Tuatha DaDanan's Special Response Team."

Tessa retrieved a box and handed it to Lt Groseaux as Mao looked a bit surprised.

"If you would do the honors, Lieutenant?" Tessa asked in a sweet, friendly tone. "As the new commander of the unit."

"Yes, Ma'am," the man said with a smile and salute before turning toward Mao and placing her new rank pins.

As it was done, both Tessa and Lieutenant Groseaux stepped back and snapped a clean respectful salute which Mao returned.

"All right," Tessa said finally in soothing and mild tone. "I am told that the Japanese Imperial Family wants to see honors given to the unit and some of you in particular. But that is going to wait for now. I need everyone to get as much rest as they can. We are still officially employed in defending Japan."

She took a deep breath.

"It is just that the definition of defend has changed a bit," Tessa noted. "We are going to be going back into action in a matter of days. The job is the same, we're making pin point attacks to secure civilian populations from attack while the JSDF presses the attack. US forces are going to be doing the same thing as us, as well as providing support and reinforcements for the Japanese. Is this understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am," the soldiers noted in unison.

"Everybody knows what to do if you've cleared an area of civilians and have enemy contacts," Mao asked sharply.

"Tell the Captain where you are," was the response.

"Sergeant Sagara," Tessa said. "2nd Lieutenant Mao, Sergeant Weber. Please follow me."

"Yes, Ma'am," the three said sharply.

The young woman turned around to give McKay and Shepard a sweet, friendly smile.

"I believe we have a meeting with Dr. Weir?" she noted with a friendly tone.

"Yes, Ma'am," Shepard said quickly, snapping a salute and leading the way out with a much more professional bearing.

"Everyone please relax and return to what you were doing," Tessa commanded encouragingly as she left the room and gave her men a little wave.

* * *

"So that's our information," Weir said. "Kolya is a renegade soldier from one of the shard realms who made his way to Earth some time ago. And it looks like he's had contact with this Gauron character."

"I thought the Gods could track each other's locations," Shepard noted. "At least with their supercomputer thingy working."

"It's been tried," Tessa said. "We can't find her. But we don't believe Gauron has that capability. As such, we are concluding..."

"They never got of Japan," Dr. Weir said.

"That is what we think," Tessa said. "Sergeant Sagara, what can you add to the discussion?"

"Captain," Sousuke said sharply.

"Captain," Rodney McKay repeated quietly in bewilderment as he still tried to take in the fact that a sixteen year old girl was the much rumored Captain Testarossa.

Several rolled eyes looked toward him as Tessa sighed and Mao smirked.

"It is likely that Gauron has a way to track her," the Mithril sergeant noted. "He plays misdirection games quite frequently."

"I don't really like this," Shepard said. "Kolya isn't exactly the kind of person to do another person's dirty work for them."

"It is most certainly a trap," Tessa agreed in a cutely insistent way.

"She's a cute little girl," Rodney said.

"She's a cute little girl with a nuclear arsenal," Shepard noted.

Tessa sighed in frustration again. She liked dealing with the Council a lot better. They knew her abilities and value.

"What's been suggested," Weir noted. "Is that you find Gauron and get a way to track the hostage. Shepard and his team go in to retrieve her from Kolya."

"Really?" Tessa noted, looking toward Shepard.

"Sounds like fun," Ronan said, shrugging.

* * *

"Damn it!" one of several Demons snapped angrily. "This is ridiculous?"

Mara had to agree actually, it wasn't that Nidhog was so well secured at the moment. No, it was that it had been left a bloody mess that was proving incredibly slow to navigate and clear. They could tell the rebels were still getting increased levels of power, but getting to Nidhog itself to shut that down was proving frustrated.

"At this rate, it'll be a hundred years before we can clear everything enough to get something done," another Demon protested.

"No offense," Megumi said, "but your base code is kind of clunky too."

Kaname groaned and thunked her head to a desk through the console she'd been taught to create.

"Somebody just shoot me," she moaned.

"Who the hell can mess up an entire Network like this in a couple of months?" some demanded.


	43. Juxtapositions of Intimacy

Nurturing

* * *

"That's it, that's it," Kurz said encouragingly, walking backwards between two bars.

"Hard," the girl in front of him said as she leaned heavily on the bars and took one shaky step forward.

Shichimu slipped and fell forward, Kurz stepping forward to catch her before she could fall all the way to the ground.

"Gotcha," Kurz said with a friendly smile, holding the girl securely. "Easy."

The girl responded with a clutter of confused grammar and vocabulary from several languages. It was hard to tell whether she was using it correctly or incorrectly, but the frustration of the babeling was clear on her face each moment until she gave up and just thumped Kurz on the shoulders in frustration.

"Yeah, yeah," Kurz said quietly. "Don't worry about it."

He let her express her frustration, holding her in support, for a little longer before standing up and carrying her over to set her down on one of the seats there and then stand up himself to walk over to the bars himself.

"Watch, okay, Shichi?" he said with a big smile on his face. "You put your arms here..."

He resisted the urge to use smaller words. It wasn't definitions that was the girl's problem, it was concepts such as "if", "before", "because", "after" and other such nebulous concepts which generally had to be experienced. Someone had said the more people just talked to her, normally, the more likely she was to start thinking in normal terms of causality and relative location.

"Look at my elbows," he said, bending them to show they were loose. "Don't do like this."

He locked his arms in place and pulled himself along by leaning on his arms, quite a bit like what Shichimu had been trying to do a moment ago.

"Don't do that," he said, smiling at her. "Because when you run out of bar..."

and he tried to pull himself into empty air and let himself tumble forward in what looked like a completely unintentional tumble, rolling across the floor a moment and coming to a sitting position rubbing his head.

Shichimu gasped and then relaxed when it was clear that the fall hadn't hurt her friend, and then she started to giggle.

"Funny," she said lightly.

"Heh, yeah," Kurz noted. "Funny."

He stood up again and moved back to the bars and pointed at his feet.

"Okay," he said. "Watch."

At which point he started to walk, pausing every so often to show that his arms weren't taking the weight. Shichimu watched very carefully.

"You got it?" Kurz asked.

Shichimu turned he head about in the characteristic expression that said she was looking for a word. Or rather, trying to tell if a particular word was one that meant what she wanted it to mean.

"Yes?" she tried.

"All right," Kurz said, let's try this again then.

He walked over to her and picked her up to bring her to the beginning of the bars and then step between them himself. The girl started trying to walk again, taking a handful of steps. They were small and hesitant, just like before, using mostly her arms at first and then slipping again as she tried to use her feet.

Kurz caught her and held her up from falling as she started complaining in a babel that only increased her frustration again.

"Hey, hey," Kurz said. "It takes most kids a year to figure this out, don't worry about it, you'll get it."

"Wouldn't it be easier to leave that to the physical therapists?" a voice asked.

Kurz glanced back to see Nimu standing there, coming forward.

"I like to help when I can," Kurz said simply. "By the way, can you tell the other Nis to watch what they say around her?"

"How do you mean?" Nimu asked coming up to the bars herself. "Are the Nis bothering you, Shichimu?"

"Nis?" Shichimu asked, interrupted in her frustration.

"Well when they complain about..." he glanced toward Shichimu's generous chest. "They're going to give her the same complex they have."

"You want her to be happy about..." Nimu cut herself off at the look. "Fine, I suppose we can allow her to appreciate her...body type. She's certainly not the only such person around."

"Thanks," Kurz said. "See, Shichimu, you're pretty, so don't let anything you hear from your sisters make you think otherwise."

"Pretty?" Shichimu repeated. "Cute? Kawaii. Beauty?"

It was just words to her, a thesaurus of many languages that all referred back to each other and none of which completely conveyed the concept that some people were more attractive than others.

For that, she had to have such concepts as "attractive" or "more".

However, Kurz's tone seemed to suggest it was a good thing so she smiled and went back to the more important matter of trying to walk. She started to look down again instinctively adjust in frame of reference to focus on the legs, long ungainly things that were apparently supposed to hold her up.

Though another sensation started to distract her.

An excited babel came out of her then, along with a helpless expression.

"Wha..." Nimu started to say.

Kurz lifted Shichimu up and handed her over to Nimu.

"Restroom," he said quickly.

The elder of the two girls blinked for a moment and then flushed briefly as she rushed for where she'd been directed to the restroom, bringing Shichimu into it and coming out a little bit later, looking rather red.

"Yeah," Kurz said, blushing himself. "She's not really figured out that either. And moving her around isn't helping much, first Meridia to the Labyrinth now to this place. I mean the people here are nice and all, but hopefully she won't have to move anymore."

"You're going on mission soon, aren't you?" Nimu asked.

"Yeah," Kurz said.

"Have you thought about the amoount of change it would be if you didn't come back?" Nimu asked.

"Yeah, I have," Kurz said. "I kinda hope if that happens, she'll end up forgetting about me so she doesn't have to wonder about it."

"I'm not sure that would be best," Nimu said quietly. "We've always tried to remember every one of our sisters that died. Now at least there are other people."

"How are your other sisters doing?" Kurz asked.

"Sanya is awake," Nimu said. "The doctors here say she'll be fine, though I think some Goddesses and magic were involved in making that so. It was close. Yonjuu came out all right, very tired but safe for the most part. And I believe Yaku is playing some sort of new game she either made or found. As for the rest of us. Some died in the fighting, but most of us are still alive. Sans, Yons and Gos were kept out of it at any rate."

"Yeah, the Sans around here keeping making it an issue," Kurz said with a smile.

There was a noise from inside after a brief period of silence and Nimu glanced at the door.

"What does...oh?" she realized, flushing red again.

"Yeah," Kurz said, obviously embarrassed. "Doing it myself just is...inappropriate. I'll go get one of the nurses or doctors around here."

Nimu grimaced and moved toward the door.

"I've got it," she said. Pausing, she turned toward him. "If you need help, I'll try to be there for her when you aren't."

* * *

Emerging

* * *

"Oh, yeah, that feels nice," Mao said as she lay face down on the bed, head held in crossed arms.

Ranma, with dark hair and a male form, carefully isolated the weary muscles and worked at them with a directed force that broke down the knots of fatigue and worry that had settled themselves into the woman's shoulders and back.

"You realize a rifle is a ranged weapon, don't you?" Ranma asked in a teasing tone.

"I used it at range," Mao protested playfully. "I also stuffed it down his throat, but I used it at range."

She turned around on the bed as Ranma finished with one muscle group and rose herself up on her elbows before reaching for a six pack nearby and grabbing one of the non-alcoholic Heinenkens.

Mission was now less than twenty four hours away.

"So, if you're a nuclear barrage," she said, "capable of wiping out a small country. That makes me...the Death Star?"

She smiled across her beer as she popped it open and took a heavy pull of it.

"I'd say if that were the case, I was more of an X-Wing fighter," Ranma quipped.

"Ha! Well you got the access port right at least," she said, pushing herself up and leaning across her knees to star at him. "I guess you're a..." she counted up a few incidents in the back of her head. "Fifth date kind of guy."

For his part, Ranma lifted one knee and leaned his elbow on it so that he could lean forward to look at her.

"Yeah, well, it was worth the wait," Ranma said. "I hope so anyway."

"You have an unfair advantage," Mao noted. "How am I supposed to compete with someone bilingual in the language of bodies, who has spent their lives studying the way the body works?"

And he...no, make that she, had had lovers in the last seventeen years. At least Melissa would have expected him to be a lot more uncomfortable than he had been in the process.

"I'll match your enthusiasm against my cold technique, anytime," Ranma said.

Mao finished a gulp of her beer and pointed the can toward Ranma with a firm glance. He was much more comfortable now, sitting and talking to her, even if he had enjoyed their earlier exchange.

It was probably one of the larger, unsaid compliments he had paid her so far.

"You," and she emphasized it with her beer can, "are not cold, Mr Li Shengshen," she said teasingly. "You barely show it on your face, but you burn hotter than the sun under that lake surface."

"And you're not quite as crass as you make yourself out to be," Ranma said.

"What?" Melissa returned, pausing to finish her beer and toss it aside before moving forward to get inches from Ranma's face, grinning broadly and poking a finger on his forehead. "Are you calling me some sort of lady? I'll have you know I worked very hard to obliterate every trace of the high society crap my parents tried to force down my throat until I joined the Marine Corps."

"Uh huh," Ranma said, lying back and letting Mao fall on top of him, tangled in the blankets that she stirred up between them. "And it worked just as well as my tries to tamp it down."

"And what do you mean by that?" Mao demanded, untangling herself and settling on top of Ranma.

"I mean that you absolutely turn an evening gown into a deadly weapon better than I'll ever manage," the exorcist explained.

"I've seen you in your feng shih, red monkey suit, lady," Melissa protested. "And you turn eyes."

"I'm a red-headed, busty Japanese woman with less than five feet tall," the dark haired man noted. "I'd draw eyes if my face were a mule's. You, on the other hand, don't need anything 'exotic'."

Mao slapped at him idly on the chest above where her own chest was pushing into his skin.

"You are challenging my status as a tough-as-nails bitch o'war, buster," she noted. "And I protest."

"Protesting too much?" he asked.

Mao pushed herself up shivering at the play of skin against skin and leaned back in, her bangs and short, dark locks draping around down over his cheeks and mixing with his own dark hair.

Their breath came in sharp little gasps for a moment as they were aware of how close their lips were.

"You know," Mao said quietly, turning momentarily serious. "That's the one thing we really haven't done yet, physically speaking. Only big thing anyway."

"I'll warn you that we'll be risking the whole two bodies secret at that point," Ranma said.

"Why's that?" Mao asked, mildly worried.

"I'll be telling my kids," Ranma said.

"Ahh, Naiki," Mao said, clearly relieved. "The kiss is that big a thing?"

"Not the biggest," Ranma said. "But one of the biggest."

"So, it's the point of no return then," Mao asked. "I kiss you and we're stepping through the door of dating co-workers, now with benefits, and heading the gulf of step-kids, dinner sets and family planning or being left with heart-rending emotional debris?"

"Yeah, I'd guess that's a way to put it," the martial artist said.

"That's alot to put on a girl who ran away from her wedding to join the Marines in a bridal gown," Mao whispered trying to keep up the light attitude of humor as her eyes moved from Ranma's lips to his own blue orbs.

"You asked," Ranma returned, running a hand through her hair. "I..."

Mao leaned in closer and her lips touched Ranma's lightly, barely placing any noticeable pressure as each released a short breath that mingled between them and made their hearts catch. The contact was like roaring fire and ice.

Mao felt a wetness at the corner of her eyes and found herself strangely wondering just what was wrong with her. She'd had much racier kisses in the past, so why was this one so...overwhelming? Was it the strain of holding back that part of her that want to make this a fuller more Hollywood kiss and something beyond a junior high smooch? Or was just that she was so heavily aware of what she'd just agreed to try for?

And Ranma's hands around her felt so good and sheltering, sending a tingling warmth where his hands touched her.

Then it was over, in maybe a blink and she was letting herself slip into a crook of Ranma's shoulder to lie her face next to his.

"We did," Mao said quietly.

"Yeah, we did," Ranma agreed.

"So which of us is making out with Cthulhu?" Mao asked, lightening the mood again. "The category 1 Ainur, or the no-one-can-say former human who can obliterate category 1s?"

The humor carried a different character suddenly though. Before, they may have had sex and been affectionate and respectful.

Just now, they had just been intimate.

Scarily intimate.

Now, they were really inside each other, even if it was just the beginning.

"I'm not sure either of us count," Ranma responded with a chuckle. "And Melissa?"

"What is it?" the mercenary asked.

"Lady."

* * *

Grief

* * *

Meridia was still in the process of completing repairs. For all intents and purposes, the Tuatha DaDanan was now the seat of the Pacific Fleet with personnel borrowing space from the US Air Force in Atlantis and dry dock capabilities from Korea and Hong Kong.

Which left Tessa walking through the empty halls of the facility, steps clicking in an echo behind her as she passed one of the repair crew and gave him a brief, friendly smile in passing.

She passed by down into the halls, Naiki's mental presence a muted distant swirl of emotions separated by the boundaries between Earth and Atlantis. Pausing at the vending machines, she turned, as she always did at this point in the hall, and stepped forward to put her money in and select a juice.

The young captain wasn't able to make her normal selection since, of the two vending machines, only the one she usually didn't use had survived the siege. The other was in a trash heap somewhere and she could still see the bloodstains on this one where it hadn't been completely cleaned.

She bent down primly and took up the can of unfamiliar flavor and firmed her lips slightly as she tasted it.

Grape juice, perhaps just a touch old.

She lifted up the folder in her other hand and looked at her agenda for this visit as she took another sip and continued walking to her office.

Already she had overseen that the repairs were proceeding well enough, but given that it was a known location, they probably weren't going to be re-staffing it until much later.

Walking into the receiving room of her office and casually stepped around behind the receptionist's desk to push the button that released the security door before moving at a quick step to beat it from relocking.

There wasn't much left here of a sensitive nature, but she did have a few things she needed to wrap up at Meridia.

The Whisper of Souls had been moved, to Atlantis now. The classified files were backed up with her superiors and available in her computer on the DaDanan.

Tessa sat down at her old desk, the seats where Mardukas habitually sat in front of her though the second chair was gone. As she did so, the young woman realized Persephone's body was still in the morgue.

Along with several others who had died in the defense of Meridia

Quietly, she took her pen and added the details of arranging for bodies to get to families to her agenda.

Not that Eija or the rest of her family had the time for a funeral right now.

Taking another sip of the sour juice, she pulled some of the few remaining files on the base out and set them in a pile on the desk.

Dossiers.

She added to the pile from some of the bundle that she had taken with her and removed one from the top to open up ahead of her. Out of another slide drawer she removed a stack of performance review forms along with some blank sheets and took one of each aside for the dossier in front of her.

Going through the form was fairly swift, ending with the status.

On patrol.

And then moving on to the blank sheet for her personal comments regarding the individual.

That took a little bit longer and more thought, but she had some practice at making these sorts of personal contacts and it still finished in a reasonable time.

Setting that dossier aside with its performance review and personal commentary, she pulled down the next to repeat the process.

On patrol.

After the third dossier...

On patrol.

...she took another sip from her juice and moved on to the fourth.

On patrol.

Tessa took another short break and looked across toward the portraits that sat on the file cabinet against the wall, across from her desk. Bani Morauta stood in an image there, working on some piece of technology that probably ended up in the Arbalest...

...she needed to check in with Sarah about a new design. The other girl was working with the Arbalest's downloaded AI on something.

Her eyes then came to the face down portrait. She'd done that herself just before they started to work on ascending Kaname. A shiver went down her back and the young woman straightened, feeling firmer in her resolve now and setting to work on the next set of dossiers.

On patrol. On patrol. On patrol.

The next one was a bit of a break from the pattern, somewhat inexplicable. Apparently she'd slipped one of Wraith's intelligence reports in with the other files she'd brought with her from the DaDanan.

She opened it up reviewed it, recognizing it from some weeks past, before Meridia in fact, and took in the photograph she saw inside. It brought a quiet smile to her face and a wistful sigh from her mouth.

She closed the information report and set it aside, making sure to remember to take it with her when she left.

That left the next of the dossiers to attend to. This one she had to brush aside some drops of water before they soaked out some of the ink, and she glanced up momentarily to see if there were some sort of condensation or leak in the ceiling above.

Finding none, she went back to the performance review in front of her.

On patrol.

A sound of knocking on the door outside came to her attention and she looked up briefly and then to her intercom box and pushed it.

"Yes, who is it?" she asked.

There was a moment of waiting, possibly as the visitor found the intercom at the vacant secretaries position.

"Yeah, Captain Testarossa," the voice on the other side said. "This is Major Shepard, I think there's some business we need to discuss."

"All right, Major," Tessa said. "Let me buzz you in."

She reached for another button and waited for the man to step in through the door carrying a small briefcase. He took a look around her office and then catching sight of the dossier and the half-written letter on the desk in front of her, as well as the piles of dossiers about her.

"Oh," he said, a bit uncomfortable suddenly. "I could come back later."

"That's fine, Major Shepard," Tessa said quietly, setting the work aside. "Have a seat, I'm afraid there's not much selection in chairs, but you can move it whereever you like."

Reluctantly he stepped forward and sat down across from the lavender haired young woman sitting at the massive desk.

"It's really nothing," he said hesitantly.

"No please," Tessa noted. "If there is any concern that Socrates Group or America as whole has, it is best to handle that now."

"Ahh," Shepard noted. "I came to apologize."

"Apologize," Tessa said, arching an eyebrow.

"The whole...secretary thing..." he said. "I really should have looked at the rank insignia first."

"That's okay, Major Shepard," Tessa noted in a kindly tone. "I have dealt with that sort of thing before."

"Well," he said. "I should apologize again..."

"What for?" she asked, curious.

"Well, I have to admit, I was still sort of thinking of you as a..." he looked for a good word.

"You thought I was a figurehead," she noted.

"I'm afraid that's right," Shepard noted.

"But figureheads don't..." and she gestured toward the pile of dossiers. Patrols waiting to be declared.

"No, they don't," he said. "So, anyway, heard you were handling some stuff here and..."

he put the briefcase up on the desk and opened it up to reveal a selection of teas.

"Normally for this sort of thing," he said, "I'd bring wine, but given that you're a kid..."

"That's fine, Major," Tessa said with a light giggle as she stood up and moved toward a cabinet and retrieving a Coffeemate tea-brewer and some cups and condiments. "Tea is just fine."

"Do you mind if I keep you company while you're..." he gestured toward the dossiers. "It might make the time go faster."

"I don't suppose that would be a problem," Tessa noted, hiding a brief sigh. "We can discuss other details of cooperation as well."

"Sure," Shepard said immediately. "That'd be good."

* * *

Innocence

* * *

Deimosu watched as a handful of young Demons and Gods stopped at the door leading to the room he was in. They were being guided about by some of the Socrates Group people, looked like a civilian type rather than one of the Air Force people, but that wasn't the main thing he noticed.

As the Immortals noticed him, most of this set younger than twelve, they froze and looked at him with that same sort of curious fear that most kids would have held for seeing some sort of dangerous beast in a zoo.

The started talking together in a hushed whisper that he could hear bits and pieces of.

"Let's move on please," the SG guide said, pushing the children along.

Yonjuu moved aside from where she was shadowing his routine for her own practice and looked out the door as the kids left.

_Damn it, they should know better,_ Deimosu noted irritably.

_Why are you letting it bother you,_ Yonjuu said as she moved back into trying out the new stance, new to her at least. _They're just kids._

_Most of them are thousands of years old,_ Deimosu corrected her. _I know the whole thing about sealing away memories like...like your sister, but I thought they kept some amount of their personality._

Younjuu moved aside and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Never mind, we've got other things to worry about," Deimosu said quickly. _Twelve._

"Why do you think 'twelve' if I get close to you or when other boys are talking to me?" she asked.

Deimosu hesitated a moment and flushed brightly as he looked away from her.

"Is this some sort of comment about my breasts or something?" Yonjuu asked looking down.

"No," he said immediately. "You always jump first thing to that whenever you think someone is upset with you. There is nothing wrong with your body. There is plenty wrong with the fact you think there's something wrong with it."

_That still doesn't explain the "twelve" thing,_ Yonjuu snapped telepathically.

_You're twelve years old!_ he sent loudly.

_I know that_ she responded. "What does being twelve years old have to do with anything?"

"Those guys..." he started. _They want to...date you. And...do things you shouldn't do to a twelve year old girl._

"Why would they want to date me?" Yonjuu asked aloud. _I'm..._

Deimosu moved over toward her and put his arms on her shoulders.

"You are not ugly," he said firmly. "You have a perfectly proportioned voluptuous build. Wide shoulders, wide hips, big..."

He flushed in embarrassment.

"..breasts," he said under his breath. "Anyway, you look like a seventeen year old girl about to reach adulthood. In Japan, you look like you're already past what is the age of consent there. And you are a nearly ideal example of one of the more desired body types."

"So..." she said slowly. "Those guys that keep coming up to me...want..."

She thought of the occasional situations out in the world where she, Nimu and Sanya would stumble on a pair of people in a sexual situation.

"Oh...oh!" she said, cheeks flushing brightly. "So you're saying I have the body of a...a...what's the word she used to use...harlot? And they think..."

She shivered in a rather interesting way that she felt should have been revulsion but wasn't.

_I don't want to do that!_ she said idly.

_Of course not,_ Deimosu returned, patting her comfortably. _You're twelve. You're way, way too young._

Yonjuu shook her head and moved to the side of the room to get a drink of water. Though drinking was not the bar to conversation it was for some.

_I...I, this is..._ Yonjuu wondered. _Are you sure? All my other sisters are sure that Nis like me are..._

"You're sisters are beautiful in a different way," he said. "It doesn't mean you're not."

"But..."

_Note, your idea of what's beautiful is primarily influenced by a lunatic narcissist with delusions of being the supreme being,_ Deimosu said.

Yonjuu nodded at that and pointed with the water bottle.

"This is true," she admitted. "What about all the girls that are so..hostile? Are there that many lesbians areound?"

"Huh?" Deimosu asked.

"You're telling me all these mean jokes and things the boys are doing is because they're trying to..." she shivered again. "So, do the girls...?"

And the shiver that followed that was legitimately and clearly revulsion.

"No, they're being hostile," Deimosu said under his breath.

"Why?" she asked. "For what reason would they not like me if I'm as beautiful as you say?"

_Jealousy,_ he responded. "Because of the...you know. They're sort of afraid all the guys will want you."

"Which..." she looked sick, "...you say...they do."

Yonjuu looked down at her chest and immediately covered it up.

She turned to look at Deimosu suspiciously.

"Do you not," she asked, "frequently tell yourself twelve when it is just you and I around?"

Deimosu flushed a bit and looked away briefly.

"Does that mean that you sometimes think about...that?" she asked. _With me?_

"Mostly," he said. _Mostly, I just want to avoid people thinking we're dating._

_So, wait, the underaged girlfriend in the rumors?_ she asked. "Is me!"

_I do wonder how those rumors got started,_ he muttered mentally irritably.

"So, just to make sure," Yonjuu said. "You don't want to date me."

"No!" he responded quickly.

"But it's because I'm twelve years old, not because of my chest?" she asked.

"Yeah," Deimosu noted. "That's right."

"So...six years from now...?" she started to say.

"You'll be eighteen and look twenty-three," he noted.

As he said that, he made the mistake of realizing that she'd probably lose the last of her baby-fat as she came to that and a matured image of Yonjuu entered his mind.

Yonjuu flushed brightly and both looked away from each other.

"Twelve," Deimosu repeated.

_Twelve,_ Yonjuu repeated, nodding.

* * *

Rivalry

* * *

"Well, aren't you in here wasting time?" Urd asked, sitting down across from Mara.

"I happen to be waiting on reports," Mara said. "Might as well eat while I wait. Unlike some people, I'm actually busy."

"You are very much not what I expected as the person to step into...Mom's shoes," Urd said.

"She was actually hoping that would be you," Mara said. "That's why I was where I was. Belldandy and Keiichi's little childhood meeting was witnessed. And when she manipulated the wish assignments to get assigned to him..."

"Get Keiichi and get Belldandy," Urd said. "Get Belldandy and get me."

There was a bit of silence for a time.

"You might not find much left of Nifelheim, Mara," she said. "I've heard what Asgard looks like. And I know you didn't go half as easily as we did. And we're finding Gods with damaged marks."

"Is the Altar intact?" she asked. "Because that can fix that."

"You, of all people, should know better than to think it's just a matter of the physical harm," Urd snapped, pointing to Mara's own marks.

Mara grimaced and reached up to her forehead.

"You remind me of that and act like I should be surprised," Mara noted. "You know it works so somebody out there has to think it's a good idea."

"A good idea?" Urd snapped. "Is that some sort ironic reversal thing so you can..."

Urd stopped and sat back down.

"Do you still..."

"I've reincarnated four times since then," Mara said. "And I haven't looked up those memories, so, no. No nightmares."

She laughed a bit bitterly.

"We're stronger than you, Demon to God," Mara said. "Exceptions like you noted. But we just can't seem to win can we? We lose the first war..."

"Everybody lost the first war," Urd said.

"You came out of it better from what I've seen," Mara responded. "And we lost the second war..."

"Hild and Kami-sama both took power about then," Urd pointed out. "I think we'll find there was something of an agreement there, after all, how many of the really insane of us survived much past that?"

Mara shook her head about as if allowing for the possibility.

"Anyway, we lost the propaganda war," she noted. "We lost it so badly, we gave up on dealing straight up with most good people and just started the whole Master of Evil crap to weed out the bad ones."

She leaned back then and crossed her arms.

"And now here you are casually telling me that Peorth sent her people in to retake Asgard now that it's vacant," Mara said. "And that you've started giving medical treatment to your civilians. And our home looks bad so Nifelheim must be leveled, and, oh, by the way, we didn't give up sovereignty to the humans to get anything done."

Urd leaned forward and glared at Mara.

"That's not fair," Urd said. "You know perfectly well that Belldandy and I..."

"I know, I know," Mara said. "But you and Belldandy aren't the accepted leaders of the Gods, not yet at least."

"We don't hesitate at all to get in each other's faces, do we?" Urd asked.

"That's what makes our relationship special," Mara responded.

"I think Peorth is making a mistake," Urd said.

Mara looked toward her, a curious expression.

"Even if we get to numbers as high as Asgard can support," Urd said. "We'll be small, and it won't be more than a year or two before Ainur outnumber us. After this, Demons and Gods like my sisters..."

She paused.

"...and me, we'll join societies in America, Japan, elsewhere. After millions of years we'll be back on Earth, officially home."

Mara leaned forward.

"I have people looking for Skuld," she whispered.

"What?" Urd said, frowning.

"We left fifty Shadows behind," Mara said. "Most are filtering back reports or looking for pockets of resistance, but I have five dedicated to finding Skuld, just in case the psychopath isn't exactly upfront about telling us how to find her."

Urd stared at her silently for a moment.

"Thanks, Mara," Urd said.

"Eh, what can I say, I'm soft on any kid that can make you look like an idiot," Mara said

"Well thanks for that," Urd snapped back.

"So they asked you about the gender thing yet?" Mara asked.

"You mean the 'why are there three of your women to every man' or whatever other such number they pull out of a hat?" Urd asked.

"That one," Mara said.

"I responded that five million years of intermittent war is rough on the population," Urd noted.

"Oh good," Mara said. "Don't mention the parthenogenesis spells. As soon as you talk about those they start thinking we're all lesbians or bisexual."

"There is a much larger percentage of our populations..."

"The last thing I need is rumors getting around to Naiki that Demons are naturally sexually open when it's not true," Mara said.

"You're the one that sicced the Kraken on her, aren't you?" Urd asked.

"What goes around comes around, and hopefully it'll go around the two of them," Mara muttered.

"Imagine for a moment, it works," Urd said. "Then imagine that they go through all the effort of learning and preparing one of those spells we were just talking about..."

"Oh creator," Mara said, paling.

* * *

Concern

* * *

"Yes, thank you, Peorth," Belldandy said, the cell phone to her ear. "I'm glad to hear that."

It shouldn't have been able to call anyone, but it was a phone, and therefore could be contacted by heaven if need be. Or it could be used to contact Asgard.

Belldandy set the phone down and took a deep breath.

"They've gotten the civilians out of Tartarus," she said. "Peorth and some others are staying with Yggdrasil to make sure it doesn't drift too far out before we can try to bring it back into Asgard."

"That's good," Keiichi said.

"She couldn't find Skuld, but she is still connected to Yggdrasil, so...she's alive," Belldandy said quietly.

She walked over to the bed in the spacious quarters that they'd been granted for the time being and wrapped her arms around Keiichi, or at least started to. She hadn't stopped when instead she stood sharply up and started to pace furiously.

"I should have gone looking for her," she said as Keiichi rose up quickly and stopped her pacing on the third cycle by wrapping her up in his arms. "I should have been more worried."

"It's going to be okay, Bell," Keiichi said. "It'll be okay. Everybody is looking for her."

Belldandy buried her head into his head, she was a bit too tall to comfortably lean into his shoulders when they were both standing. The Goddess pulled her arms into her chest and shook with worried sobs.

"It's not just her," Belldandy said. "Chihiro is still over there. Sayoko never got back from looking for them. We haven't heard from Aoishima or Otaki and Tamiya. How could I just leave them behind for that...person?"

She shivered as imagination of what might be happening passed over her.

"It's not your fault," Keiichi said. "We didn't just leave them behind, we looked until we couldn't go back."

Belldandy nodded slowly and as Keiichi sat back on the bed she followed him down, sitting on his lap and still holding him and being held by him.

A hard sob shook her then and was followed by several little ones.

"I let Kishimo-Jin kill herself," Belldandy said tightly. "I almost ruined the trap around that...thing because I broke to help her. And Mara almost died and Persephone did die. And in Japan..."

"You were healing people," Keiichi reminded her. "Pretty much the whole time."

Belldandy sat quietly shaking, arms around Keiichi's head as she slowly calmed down, or at least tired out.

"Am I being selfish?" she asked. "I'm too used to knowing what to do. What's right. What's right? Here, now? What's right? Should I have left the triage to help find Skuld? Was staying there while she was missing wrong?"

"Skuld is going to be fine," Keiichi said. "She'll be just fine, everybody is looking for her. You know that."

"That's part of the problem," the Goddess said quietly. "Some of the people looking for her are the wrong people."

She sighed and held Keiichi harder.

"I suddenly wonder that I presumed to advise Kaname on dealing with Eija and Sousuke," she said. "This is different than before. Confrontations with Demons could leave you imprisoned and trapped, but there would always be the hope of finding them again."

"Hey, Bell," Keiichi said. "Aren't souls reborn?"

"They can be," she said. "You think we will, find them again?"

"There is no doubt about it," her husband said. "You know Skuld is clever. And neither Chihiro nor Sayoko are ones to cave in. Everybody else will be fine too, you'll see."

Belldandy felt remarkably small in his arms as he stroked her hair and her, letting herself express all these things that she had been holding back since probably since Meridia and probably even before that.

Lightly, he let himself fall back on the bed, allowing her to lay down in a physically comfortable way that he hoped soothed her thoughts and emotions as well.

Her breath came out still in short bursts, but slowed down as the gentle quite pervaded the room about the two. And slowly she let her breath slow, matching it in time to Keiichi's own, watching as their entwined hands on his chest rose and fell with each slowly and calmly taken breath.

A small part of her, the unworthy part of her that produced jealousy storms and other such outbursts, wondered how he could be so calm, but the question didn't reach her conscious mind. It was answered before that.

She could feel his heart beating rapidly under her hand, remembered the clench of his hands when she talked about her sister and their friends. That heart wasn't any slower than her own. He was just as worried as she was, but trying to keep her calm.

The tears threatened to return to her eyes, but she'd just about used up all her tears for the time being, and only a miniscule few drops added to the wetness on her cheeks.

Smiling briefly in spite of the worry still in her heart, she leaned up to lightly kiss Keiichi on the cheek.

"I love you, Keiichi," she said in her normal soothing tone, putting it on for him in exchange for how he was staying outwardly calm for her. "We'll get everyone back."

* * *

Building

* * *

_Kaname_ Eija sent quietly as she stood outside the door beside Sousuke.

"Kaname," Sousuke said, still flushing somewhat at the use of familiar still. "We wish to speak to you."

The door opened to reveal Kaname and it was clear that she had been crying. She moved forward and Eija awkwardly accepted the other girl into her arms, patting her and looking toward Sousuke with an encouraging glance.

Apparently it worked, since he moved in to their side and gripped Kaname's shoulder in a way that wasn't what someone would have expected from a romantic movie, but was volumes of emotion coming from Sousuke.

"I heard from New York..." Kaname said.

"I know," Eija said quietly. "I heard you when you got the news."

"We should go into the room," Sousuke noted in a quiet undertone.

He was unfamiliar with much of everyday life, but he was well familiar with the sort of pain one felt at the loss of a comrade or family. He'd felt it many times himself.

Kaname nodded and Eija quietly transferred her over into Sousuke's arms. At first the soldier wasn't clear what to do with the blue-haired girl, but, as Eija moved in and immediately to the little kitchen area to start cooking some tea, he led Kaname over to one of the couches and eased her down to it, being careful to hold her.

"I know," Kaname said. "I know you've both lost people too."

Eija stopped herself from responding telepathically with Sousuke in the room.

"It doesn't make it hurt less," she said.

"Affirmative," Sousuke said, holding Kaname firmly, the way he'd hold a traumatized hostage if necessary. "Our own personal issues should not hinder you at all."

Kaname stared up at him then, eyes flashing angrily.

"Your personal..." she repeated. "Sousuke! In case you didn't understand what we...said...your issues are my issues. If you hurt, I hurt! And I shouldn't be adding to that."

Eija frowned and set the tea kettle to boil as she moved over to sit on the right side of Kaname and Sousuke. The Goddess reached up to brush back a lock of Kaname's hair and leaned into her.

"Let us be selfish and comfort you, Kaname," Eija said. "Right now, it is about you. On Meridia you two made it about me. Later, it will be about Sousuke. But now is about you."

Kaname sniffed and then laughed.

"It's selfish for you to make me feel better?" she asked.

"Yes, it makes at least me feel useful," Eija said. "You are always dragging my unconscious body somewhere."

"Affirmative. You also frequently give morale boosting speeches to me," Sousuke said.

"And I asked Sousuke to look into things," Eija said.

Kaname glanced toward Sousuke hopefully.

"Your brother is well," he said. "I used a photo from your Mithril file and asked that he be looked for. The US military reports finding him in one of the hospitals."

Kaname sighed at the news and leaned back into Sousuke.

At least, she wasn't the last one left of her family.

"Thank you," Kaname said. "Thank you for looking for him."

The three shared a silent time indeterminable, Kaname held between the other two. Sousuke's heart and breathing heavy in her ears as she heard Eija's soothing thoughts slipping into her mind. She felt herself rise up with Sousuke's breath, the heat of his body and Eija suffusing her.

The stubborn, emotionless exterior of Sousuke was a constant she'd come to expect the past few months. She knew, or at least suspected, that it was more to do with an inability to display or understand emotions than an actual lack of them. It made such small things as the gripping of her shoulder before Eija had passed her over to his arms such wonderful gestures.

Even now, when he was clearly nervous about holding her in his arms and trying so hard to do things right that she could feel his muscles tightening, it seemed stony to an outsider, but it was practically screaming out to her.

Even the aura of death about Eija felt different now. At first it was something that disturbed Kaname greatly, just as it did everybody else. Then it was something to tolerate and eventually forget about it. But she hadn't forgotten about it, no, instead it had become a firm part of what made Eija who she was.

Eija's usually wise observations that were at once eerily calm and deeply sad had also become a recognizable pattern in her life. The sadness had been fading of late, but some of it had returned after Persephone died.

Kaname was annoyed with herself again for leaning on them so much. She wanted to take their pain away, not make them focus on hers. With a sigh she realized what they meant about wanting to comfort her being a selfish desire.

She very selfishly wanted to do the same.

"Sergeant Slaughter's next right?" Kaname asked with a sniffing hint under her attempted humor. "He doesn't get to be Mr. Stoic forever."

"I'm sure that we shall be able to get some emotion out of him," Eija noted.

"This is a troubling line of conversation," Sousuke said, the girls weren't completely certain whether he was simply playing along or being serious.

The tea pot gave a shrill cry causing Eija to blink and sit up.

"I'll take care of that," she said, standing up and walking quickly into the little kitchen area to take the kettle off the burner.

The Goddess came back with a tea tray, three cups and the kettle. Kaname's idle thoughts again wondered where Eija always managed to find a tea tray and set, and Eija's thoughts habitually responded that she tried to always be prepared as Sousuke reluctantly let her sit up and accepted a cup of tea from Eija.

Kaname took a deep breath, and Eija hesitated at the thoughts rolling out of the blue-haired Ainur's head worried her. Picking up on the subtext himself, Sousuke turned to look toward Kaname.

"I'm going back to help Geisthexe-san clear a path into Nidhog tomorrow," Kaname said calmly. "And I'm not using one of those consoles."

Eija flinched and put a hand over her cup to prevent it from spilling. Sousuke likewise turned to look at her.

"Are you sure about this," Sousuke said. "I saw Geisthexe-san after their battle with Kodachi Kuno."

"It is dangerous," Eija said.

"Tomorrow you're going off to help retake Kyushu," Kaname said to Eija before turning toward Sousuke. "And you're going after Gauron! I'm not sure which is worse!"

"There's no reason to put..." Eija started to say.

"Yes there is," Kaname said. "The sooner Nidhog is up, the sooner Geisthexe and everyone can get fully into the fight and the sooner everything ends and we can get on with life. And those consoles are too slow!"

Sousuke and Eija were silent for a little bit.

"Then tomorrow, all three of us shall be heading into risk tomorrow," he said carefully. "And we won't be there to help each other."

"I might be able to help Kaname," Eija said.

"Not if you're busy," the Ainur girl responded carefully. "There's something...something I want to do..."

Eija blushed and sipped her tea looking around furiously as Kaname talked.

"This is something...personal, isn't it," Sousuke asked, noting Eija's suddenly nervous reaction.

"Yeah, before we go," she said. "I want to...practice...kissing."

Eija sipped her tea and tried to look at the ceiling and instead found Sousuke's face on the other side of Kaname from her and flushed brighter red.

"This may be our last chance," Kaname whispered, sobering Eija somewhat. "I don't want to leave without kisses between us, just in case that's just the little bit extra you need..."

Sousuke finally lifted his cup of tea to his lips and drank it down, sitting the tea cup on the tray.

"You think a kiss migh..." he didn't get to finish as Kaname leaned in to steal his lips and holding him tightly.

Sousuke's eyes widened and he glanced over toward Eija who shrugged helplessly and then pantomimed wrapping her arms around Kaname. Clumsily he did and kiss held interminably as Kaname tentatively, lacking experience herself, explored his mouth, sending a hesitant shiver down his spine.

For her part, Eija couldn't look away and found herself hearing and feeling the rushing swirl of Kaname's wordless passion through the whole of it, almost as if she was kissing Sousuke at the same time.

The brief worry that they might have started merging again despite the marks was ended when she realized that she could sharply and distinctly tell Kaname's emotions from her own. Strangely she could even feel emotions that she knew were Sousuke's too.

Kaname was nervous and excited and scared and fearful of losing them all at once. Much of that was reflected in Sousuke, as was a confusion over what was happening. Both felt a raw, primal sensation that was pushing for more, and Eija felt a pristine, crystalline joy that the other two were feeling...good.

Slowly, Kaname pulled away and let herself be held in Sousuke's arms for a long sequence of breaths.

"The sensation is...curious," Sousuke said then.

"Very...curious," Eija agreed in a near whimper.

"Yeah..." Kaname said breathlessly. "Was it...any good?"

"I...do not have a...frame of reference," Sousuke protested.

"Then..." Kaname switched around to the other side of Eija and gently pushed her forward. "If she wants to take the challenge of comparing kisses? I present frame of reference."

_You had to say 'challenge'?,_ Eija asked.

"You just challenged Eija to a kissing match?" Sousuke asked.

_Now, as a Satomi you have to do it,_ Kaname thought playfully. "Yep, so now it's official."

_You don't play fair,_ Eija noted.

"You are using devious tactics, Kaname," Sousuke noted.

"Do you really not want to?" Kaname asked quietly.

"No...I mean yes! I mean...I want to!" "I think it would be...beneficial."

The two statements were nearly simultaneous.

"Okay then," Kaname said. "Now, Eija's a lady compared to me so, you need to be nice to her here, Sousuke. Ready Eija? Sousuke?"

Both nodded as Sousuke leaned forward, tensing up and looking like he was about to explode even as he got closer to Eija's face and she leaned in.

Until Kaname bumped her forward just a little.

Eija and Sousuke's lips and clumsily they started trying to imitate what Kaname had tried with Sousuke, and the mercenary relying on his experience with CPR.

Even if neither showed even the slight hint of adventurousness that Kaname had in slipping her tongue at least just past Sousuke's lips, the emotion carrying between them was just as heavy and nervous. Kaname could feel it in the back of her mind where Eija's thoughts usually originated from. And she could feel it in the shivering of the Goddess's body.

Like for Eija, the distinctions between whose emotions were whose seemed clear and Kaname felt a mischievous sort of giddiness that she had managed to get this moment to happen, distinct from the perspective of a pure witness that Eija had felt during Kaname's kiss.

A thoroughly blushing Eija lowered her head from Sousuke's face and covered her red cheeks with her nearly white hands.

"So..." Kaname asked, shaking off the echoes of what Eija had felt herself. "Was that...better?"

"I am...not sure," the mercenary said reluctantly, as if asking for permission to say that.

"Perhaps more training is necessary," Eija said from behind her hands in a small squeaking voice.

Kaname moved around again to Sousuke's other side, so that the two girls had him firmly between them. She sat down forcefully and tried to continue looking confident, but the squeak in her voice and other signs told the other two she was just as simultaneously sure and unsure.

"Okay..." she said. "Again then?"

Kaname leaned into Sousuke and let him hesitantly come to meet him, Eija giving a suppressed giggle as their lips met and the emotions swept over her. As Eija's turn came up again, it was Kaname who was swept up in the vicarious emotions this time.

Both girls pushed in closer on either side of him as they started again, forgetting to ask whether it was good or not. Slowly, the world around them faded and there was just the raw emotion of each kiss.

The shared circle of sensations again returned as they let themselves be swallowed up in what had started innocently enough and instincts they were only vaguely aware of pushed them further.

A sublime connection had been offered, accepted and forged on that sunset on the hill, something now that the Ainur and Goddess willingly and instinctively let open wide now.

* * *

Friends

* * *

Naiki looked down toward Kyoko's cane and a guilty expression came over her face as they walked down the halls together.

"You know, I should have thanked you before," Kyoko said.

"What?" Naiki asked, distracted from her thoughts. "For what?"

"Not getting mad at me," she said. "Before your fight with Poseidon."

"Are you kidding?" the Demoness asked, hands behind her head as she walked backwards in front of Kyoko. "If weren't for the peach I wouldn't have been able to pull off everything I did! Some of it sure, but not all of it."

"I wasn't talking about that," Kyoko said with a smile. "Before the fight, before the sparring."

"Oh," Naiki said. "Pictures."

She flushed and then turned around to face forward and following back to Kyoko's side, looking toward a wall away from the other girl.

"Well, there's someone in the pictures with me right now," Naiki said with a hollow bit of annoyance.

"You don't have to worry about her calling in an embarrassing favor anymore," Kyoko reminded her.

"She's still a creepy little stalker," Naiki said. "Who wants to practice kissing now. Knew I shouldn't have fed the stalker."

"What did you think of the kiss?" the human girl asked.

Naiki shrugged a bit even as she flushed.

"She's been around like that for a thousand years or something," the Demoness said finally.

"So?" Kyoko asked. "Doesn't that mean you should decide right away?"

"What do you mean?" Naiki asked.

"When this is over, they'll ask her to reincarnate, right?" the girl in the glasses asked. "What if you let her go without trying to get past the looney stalkter crush to the real her. And what if you like the real her?"

Naiki grimaced and crossed her arms under her breasts and looked about stubbornly.

"What if the part of her I like isn't the real her," Naiki asked sharply.

"I guess it's sort of like having a terminal cancer patient ask you on a date," Kyoko said. "But, this one's coming back, Naiki. You can at least try."

"Did your boyfriend get out of Tokyo?" Naiki asked quietly, as if reminding herself of something.

"Yes," the girl said. "He's here in Atlantis."

"Does he help you out with stuff?" Naiki asked. "I mean, with the cane."

Kyoko smiled at her.

"I'm not helpless, Naiki," she said. "And I don't blame you. You didn't choose that fight."

"He was there for me," the Demoness said quietly.

"Existing is not a sin," Kyoko said idly. "He chose what to do, not you."

"If he hurts you, I'll be talking to him," Naiki said firmly.

"I know," Naiki said. "I make sure to drop your name on potential dates and see which ones get nervous."

"Wait, what?" Naiki asked.

Kyoko pulled out her camera and took a picture of Naiki's confused face.

The Demoness hung her head and sighed before looking toward Kyoko again.

"You know I..."

"I know," Kyoko said, as Naiki paused.

"And you don't..."

"Like Eija and Kaname," Kyoko said.

"Sooo, if I find a cute guy we both like..." Naiki suggested.

"Ah, right, you weren't around when Mizuki suggested Eija and Kaname kissing to them," Kyoko said.

Naiki stopped and thought about it for a moment.

"So waiting for you..."

"Is just going to be painful," Kyoko said, "I'd rather see you happy."

"And if I do decide I l...like Lusca," Naiki said. "What about...?"

Kyoko turned to look at her and leaned forward.

"Like Eija and Kaname, Naiki," she said.

* * *

Goodbye

* * *

"Have to be there tomorrow," Akane said as she reluctantly sat up from her position in her husband's arms. "Both of us."

"I know," Ryuu said, rising up himself.

Both sat against each others' back and leaned back simply letting their breath breath in and out for a few minutes longer. They waited until their breaths were coming in unison before standing up and moving toward the master bath accessible through there room only.

There was a temptation to share the shower, another chance to share each other before leaving off for war, but each was aware of just how likely they'd be to risk being late and neither could afford that.

"Kimiko is in Izumi's room," Ryuu said as Akane came out of the shower. "Nabiki is in one of the guest rooms."

He was putting away his razor kit and tooth brush.

"Mmhmm," Akane said, moving to the sink and giving him a kiss as she did. "I asked Masaru and Kimiko to make sure to take care of their Aunt Nabiki."

Ryuu nodded and stepped into the shower himself.

As he came out, Akane was in the main room, buttoning up her uniform and checking herself in the mirror to make sure that she was presentable.

"Here," Ryuu said, reaching out to straighten her tie for her. "There."

"Thanks," Akane said. "Not that having a straight tie is going to be the worst of our problems."

"Let's hope it is," Ryuu said as he got dressed himself.

Sharing a look as they finished their morning routine, both walked out to share breakfast with their children, their niece and Nabiki.

A last chance to speak before moving into battle.

* * *

Courage

* * *

"Now," Zeus said, leaning forward. "What is this?"

He stepped down from his chair and moved forward to take a closer look at the woman in front of him, cupping her chin to turn her head up and take a look at the green marks on her face. A forehead mark like a regal tiara and two diamonds at the corner.

"What are you?" he asked.

"There were several of these anomalies in the battle, my Lord," the God that had brought her forward said. "This one was captured not far from here somewhat dazed."

Sayoko snapped her head away from his hand and straightened herself to her full height and her accustomed posture.

"Don't touch me," she said, not snapping but with a calm air of command.

Well, you have a queen's spirit," he said. "Remind to reward her cousin for this offer. She truly is a unique catch. You may leave us."

The God that had brought her bowed and left the room.

"Did I just hear correctly that Aoishima presumed to sell me?" Sayoko asked.

"I needed a replacement for my traitorous queen," Zeus said. "And he offered a fair negotiation. Isn't it the place of a male to arrange matches for the family's women."

"Not anymore," Sayoko said. "These days, the woman chooses for herself."

"That sounds foolish," Zeus noted. "To put the fate of such beauty in the hands of such..."

"Is it all right to please cut the banter," Sayoko asked. "I know what I was called here for, you know what I was called here for. I'm here to sooth your ego so you can claim you seduced me."

"I haven't found any women I haven't been able to...charm," Zeus said.

The matter of Aphrodite passed through his mind but he ignored it as he walked around her.

"Charm like what you did to Meryl, I can do without," Sayoko spat.

"What I did, why she was eager for more by the end of our little romp," he responded to her, leaning up behind Sayoko and pressing into her back.

Sayoko didn't respond to that, Melinoe had been treating the Demoness when the Ainur was brought out. The girl had almost been back to what was probably normal at that point. Which meant that she was curled up in a fetal ball rather than hoping Zeus would call her again soon.

Zeus's hand slipped under her blouse and the fingers touched against the small of her back. Sayoko whipped an elbow back to smack Zeus, but he caught it easily and before she could make another attempt, a tingle of electrical current spread out across her skin where Zeus's hand was.

Her breath caught in her throat and she tumbled forward, still held by Zeus with one hand. He steadied her and, as he did so, reached another hand around to rip her blouse off.

"It feels wonderful doesn't it?" Zeus asked as he brushed a finger across the curve of one of her breasts. "Do you see now why women love me so much?"

The same electrical current passed into Sayoko's skin and over the flesh of her breast and unwillingly flooding her with physical pleasure.

"You...cheat," Sayoko said gasping. "You don't really know who to please a woman, you have to play with her brain."

"Oh really?" Zeus asked, pulling her hard back against him and cupping both breasts and letting the lightning out of his fingers cross into her body to stimulate select nerve endings.

This time, she came close to crying out.

"Oh, don't be silent," Zeus said. "Where's the joy in that?"

He kissed the back of her neck and the contact set nerves aflame as he sent electrical current into the flesh.

"I am not going to give you what you want," Sayoko said gasping. "I've seen real love and I've had real lovers."

"We'll see about that," Zeus said, his hands starting to trail lightly over her body.

She couldn't have described it to anybody that hadn't already felt it. Ranma would have been familiar with it, bitterly so. She tried not to let it force her to action as she was dragged down to the floor, but it was painfully hard to keep in the amount of pressure and emotion that was pushing itself through her.

As the God's assault moved unchecked, her thoughts were blurred away and she heard herself scream out, a pleasurable scream much to Sayoko's horror and revulsion even as her body reacted the way a lover might.

"Well..." his voice asked after a wide stretch of blinding sensation unwillingly experienced.

"It's. Still. Rape," Sayoko forced out despite every fiber of her body screaming out to ask for more.

"If you think so," Zeus said in a dangerous tone. "I really shouldn't feel obliged to make it pleasant for you, should I?"

"Who...calls this...pleasant?" Sayoko asked, sobbing.

And then she felt hands along her forehead.

"Let's see if these marks mean what I think they mean," he said.

Her head felt like it was going to explode. As if something had been forcefully shoved into the front of her mind and out the unconscious parts. Briefly she had a vision of the mindscape with Zeus pushing outward through her body and reaching out toward the gossamer crystalline forms beyond.

And find something that both the security of Yggdrasil and the current cluttered mess of Nidhog and kept away from him.

It was over then and Sayooko came back to awareness of the world underneath him, face down and shaking in remembered and current pain. Screams that she couldn't hear herself make echoing in her lungs.

"Now, sorry about that, Sayoko," Zeus said in a comforting tone. "Now where were we?"

The next she was aware, other voices were speaking over her.

"Like I showed you," Melinoe was saying. "Just need energy for this, no specific powers. Ease her back. Unwrite the energy he put in her."

"Please," Sayoko whispered. "Please tell me I didn't ask."

* * *

Note: if anybody is interested, there is a tvtropes page for this

tvtropes dot org search DivineBlood


	44. Guests for Breakfast

"Okay," Mizuki said, looking about the various things in the safehouse.

There was food and weapons and lots of pieces of sculpture, crystals or something. Empty scrolls of paper. Strange, ornate boxes. And a lot of money.

"Wow, Satomi-san is rich," Mizuki noted in awe.

"I think that's the least of what she is," Issei said, looking around. "I guess this will do until people start fighting back."

"MmHmm," Mizuki said. "I wonder what's in these things?"

Mizuki asked, picking up one of the boxes and moving to open it.

"Stop!" Issei shouted as the girl started to reach for one of the clasps. "This is a hidden stockpile of weapons and occult supplies for a powerful exorcist and feng shih. There's no telling what opening one of those will do!"

"So, you mean it could summon some sort of ravening monster?" Mizuki asked.

Issei grimaced and took the box from her carefully and set it back in place.

"I hardly think so," he said. "Satomi-san does not seem the type to deal in that but you can't be too careful."

"Right, you're right," she said, looking around. "Oooo, covert ops clothes! Awesome and perfect."

"What, what are you talking about?" Issei demanded. "Are you going to play...dress up? With all this?"

"Of course not," Mizuki said. "But I'm not going to walk around dressed in a school uniform while we're doing resistance stuff."

"Damn you, Inaba, this is not a game!" Issei said.

"You want to stick around and do nothing?" Mizuki asked checking some of the black kevlar outfits for size. "Isn't that boring?"

"What the hell do you think we can do?" Issei demanded.

"Something," Mizuki said, shrugging.

Issei grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around.

"Listen, woman," he said. "Don't you understand?"

"Of course I do," Mizuki said with an idle smile, though her shoulders were shaking just slightly enough to show that she wasn't as unaffected as she pretended. "If I stay here, I'm going to go crazy and freak out. So, might as well have some fun."

* * *

"Irregular patrols," Wraith noted looking over the information that Tofu had brought in. "Going to be hard to predict."

There were notes of places the Gods had settled in, the routines of people who were told to go about their business while being terrorized by random individuals. Tofu had collected some photos, including of the serving staff still being employed, more like enslaved now, at the Imperial Palace.

"That'll be deliberate," Moloch said. "They get too old, they get quirky. Hard to control."

"So he feeds their quirks," Wraith noted, nodding. "And his quirks are parties, women and spoiling his children."

She glanced over her shoulder toward the woman that Tofu had brought in with him. Human, business woman by the dress, probably Egyptian by the name she had given. When Tofu first brought her in, she'd mostly raved about how wonderful Zeus had made her feel.

Moloch had done something and the woman was now much clearer of mind. He'd shown the two chi-users how to perform the treatment at the same time.

"Outside the Mantels, they're as vulnerable as we are right now," Moloch said. "Some will have body hardening."

"Expected," Wraith said. "Everybody is loaded with armor piercing already. Direct confrontation won't be the name of the game though."

Kasumi walked over to the group and handed them cups of tea.

"Green tea, room temperature," Kasumi said, handing the cup to her husband. "Oolong with added sulphur. Another green tea. And excuse me."

Kasumi started moving among the soldiers, handing them cups as she walked around the edge of the planning session glancing down to make sure she was giving the right cups to the right people. Then she walked on to attend to the various other people in the room.

"Where did she get ingredients?" Wraith wondered idly before turning back to the situation. "He's letting his human victims go, but he's keeping the four Immortals he has, why?"

"Think of them like machines on a hard-wired network," Moloch said. "He can use the Demon and the Ainur to get into Silmaril or Nidhog. Not much he can do with the Goddesses, they're most likely just there for pride's sake."

"Captain Testarossa recommended mixed units because of something like this," Wraith said grimmly. "We didn't expect this as a source."

"I note you stayed human," Moloch said.

"Let's get to some operations," Wraith said. "You found where they parked some of their ASes."

She looked to Tofu.

"Destruction or sabotage?" Moloch asked.

"I tend to think things falling apart when they're most needed is the most disheartening," Wraith said.

"I do agree," the Demon said with a smile.

"Let's get started," Wraith said. "The counter attack will be coming quickly."

* * *

Chihiro woke up slowly and looked around at the debris surrounding her until her eyes settled on the forms of Ootaki and Tamiya.

"What happened," she asked.

"You were disappearing in something like a circle and then suddenly got thrown across the room" Tamiya said. "We got you out of there before these guys in the whale-bots could show up."

"Whale-bots?" Chihiro asked.

"Yeah," Ootaki said, gesturing for her to come to a gap in the broken wall.

Chihiro crept over, rubbing at her forehead and looking out to see a tall blue AS standing not far away from where they hid.

"What the hell is that?" she asked briefly.

"You don't know?" Tamiya asked. "Weren't we working for these people?"

"Wait, I think these must be Gods," Chihiro said. "I saw a Demon AS at that military base and it was like a red dinosaur."

"Whatever it is," Ootaki said. "It's been sitting on top of us all day, can't move out of here."

"Let's see what we can do about that," Chihiro noted.

* * *

"Here you go, Auntie Nodoka," Kasumi said idly to Nodoka, handing her a cup of tea.

The woman shakily gripped the cup and pulled it to her lips.

"A Miss Satomi told you about this place, Kasumi-chan?" Nodoka asked.

Kasumi paused and then sat down across from Nodoka carefully.

"Yes, she did," Kasumi said. "I believe the same woman is the one who had it stocked up like this."

"This feels like a holy place," Nodoka said with a frown as she looked about at the people and items in the cavern.

"Ranma said it should protect people against hostile forces," Kasumi said, basically implying that Ranma had agreed.

"What sort of woman is this Satomi, and what are her children like?" the older woman asked, wincing as the pain in her body continued to grow.

"I have not spoken to your...daughter often," Kasumi said. "If you had come to Kurumi's funeral you could have seen them for yourself. Naiki was a bit reckless, but Eija seemed quite polite and formal. I'm sorry to say that his son seemed a bit...distant."

"She has a son?" Nodoka asked, interested.

"What makes that more significant than her daughters?" Kasumi asked in a polite but cool tone.

Nodoka leaned back and frowned.

"Perhaps there is nothing," she admitted reluctantly.

The older woman glanced across toward the Egyptian woman.

"That happened to Ranma," she whispered.

Kasumi looked at her hands and the tea kettle she held there and the small assortment of tea packets she had. She held that appearance for a long moment before sighing and looking back toward Nodoka.

"Yes," Kasumi said quietly. "I believe so. There were two others, but they are dead now."

"Is this so?" Nodoka asked.

"Kurumi died killing Hecate," Kasumi said. "And Eija Satomi sealed that woman's spirit. Naiki Satomi helped kill both Hecate and Poseidon."

"Her children are avenging her," Nodoka noted proudly.

"That wasn't what Ranma wanted," Kasumi said quietly. "I believe she merely wished that her children could defend themselves better than she had been able to."

"You mean she didn't encourage this?" Nodoka asked, surprised. "Death is lighter than a feather..."

"Auntie Nodoka," Kasumi said, "I know the proverb. But it is the duty of a mother to protect her children, not ask them to settle her problems."

Nodoka winced and Kasumi took a breath, starting to sit up and move on to handle other errands.

"I spoke to her," Nodoka said quietly, stopping Kasumi.

"When?" the gentle woman asked.

"After it happened," Nodoka said. "I encouraged her to satisfy honor."

"Nabiki went looking for her," Kasumi said in an outwardly mild manner. "Starting with talking to you."

"I am aware of this," Nodoka said.

Kasumi took another long breath, anger clear under her mild demeanor as she stood up.

"I have a food situation to attend to," the younger woman noted. "I shall be back later."

* * *

Skuld looked about herself carefully.

There was electricity judging by the lights in the hallway. Which meant it was connected to the city grid, hopefully. She was still connected to Yggdrasil, but as the guy holding her had said, she didn't really want to risk getting captured in case someone unwanted was listening to

On the plus side, her captor was actually rather professional about things rather than the sort of psychopath she'd heard about under people's breaths.

"What are you looking for?" Skuld asked as he set out her food, some sort of ugly military mush.

"It isn't a concern of yours," Kolya said. "Suffice to say that both groups that will come looking for you have people in their employ that I wish to speak to. My client, likewise, hopes to have his own conversation I understand."

"Okay, so I'm bait then?" she asked.

"Yes," Kolya noted. "Now, if you behave, then my old acquaintances come and one group wins and you end up a lab experiment somewhere, the other group wins and you're rescued, or I win and I let you go."

She looked at him doubtfully.

"You'd just let me go?" she asked.

"I have no interest in a sixteen year old girl, regardless of how special she may be," the man said. "Now, you'll be tempted to help the team coming to rescue you. I am not sure you've actually met them however, so I wonder if you'll be able to tell the team that'll turn you into an experiment from the one that will come to rescue you."

Frowning, Skuld poked at her food and picked up a packet that blasphemously called itself ice cream.

"You're a jerk," Skuld said irritably, trying to cover her fear with bravado.

"Yes, but at least I am honest and have limits," he said. "Unlike some of the individuals interested in you."

* * *

As the door opened, Sayoko was surprised to find Aoishima stepping inside with a smug expression and flanked by a pair of guards.

She stood up and was halfway across the room before the US air force lieutenant stepped forward to intercept her.

"I see that you're upset with me," her cousin said.

Sayoko straightened herself, staying behind the human that had come forward.

"You might say that, Aoishima," she said bitterly.

She flinched slightly at the near constant headache she'd had since...her audience with Zeus, and reached up to note that her marks were bleeding again.

"Well, it is your own fault," he noted. "I understand that you, personally, advised against giving me even a chance of becoming Ainur."

Melinoe stepped forward to come up beside Sayoko and hold her shoulders. Nyx stayed with Meryl, and the handful of remaining women stepped forward around Sayoko and the guards.

"You...betrayed me because I wouldn't recommend you," Sayoko said evenly.

"You did more than that," Aoishima said. "You outright told them not to let me near it."

Sayoko gestured to herself and shouted.

"Is there any question why?" she demanded and gripped her forehead again.

"Keep calm, Miss Mishima," the air force lieutenant noted firmly. "You know what the Goddess said."

"Why are you here, human," Melinoe asked coolly.

"I just wanted to see my cousin and explain to her just my reasoning," Aoishima said. "You see, the Imperials left that Whisper of Souls machine a mess, but I'm thinking Zeus is getting ready to put together a replacement, once that's done, I'll have my immortality."

"You idiot," Nyx said. "Zeus is doomed. He's desperate and just buying time, you'll go down with him."

"He has no intention of being around when things go wrong," Sayoko said.

"Don't guess Sayoko," Aoishima said, glancing toward the two Gods flanking him. "It doesn't become you."

"Lord Zeus has already decided as much, actually," one of the guards said.

"What was that?" Aoishima asked.

He turned to look and saw the two guards leaving the room calmly.

"Lord Zeus tells you to consider this a gift Lady Sayoko," the other noted. "Zeus partially agrees with you. A mortal should not presume to treat an Immortal the way he has treated you."

"Do you expect us to beat him to death?" Sayoko asked.

"For a little while," the first guard said. "We'll relax the bounds of your power in this room, not enough to get out, of course, but enough for some retribution."

Aoishima turned frantically from the closing door to look at the women around him.

Sayoko grimaced darkly and leaned over to whisper into Melinoe's ear.

"It can be done," the Goddess said.

Then the woman started chanting and tracing runes in the air as Sayoko stepped forward.

"I'm giving you a warning because we're blood, cousin," she said darkly under her breath. "But once you open that door, get away from the palace before an hour is up and stay out of sight."

"Who are you to tell what I should do?" Aoishima asked as the Goddess finished her spell and the energy washed over Aoishima.

"Trust me on this one if we see you back in this room, you won't willingly like it," Sayoko said meaningfully.

Aoishima looked confused towards the Goddess and back to Sayoko and the other women.

"Why would I ever be back in this..." his pupils shrank in fear then as he saw the mana fading away and he considered a possibility.

Melinoe walked to the door and knocked on it.

When the door opened, Aoishima was running out of it with them laughing.

He didn't stop running until he was out of breath and far out of the palace where Zeus had set up, most of the servants and Gods ignoring the fleeing mortal.

Resting and laughing at his own panic, he was started to calm down as the hour came to an end.

And the next time he looked into a mirror, there was a woman standing there.

* * *

Kasumi checked over the rolls of bandages quietly humming to herself as she made sure they were in good condition. Satisfied, she started to measure out a length, holding a pair of scissors in one hand.

"Mrs Ono," one of the kids in the shelter asked, coming up to her. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm just preparing," she said in a friendly manner. "Someone might need help, after all. Can you do me a favor and sort through those uniforms there and see which ones are clean?"

"I guess," he said. "Where are these uniforms for?"

Behind them, unnoticed amongst the other people, Nodoka Saotome struggled to her feet and started quietly walking her way out of the main, large room where everybody had settled.

* * *

Mizuki, bandana wrapped around her face as if she were some sort of ninja, flattened dramatically against a wall as two nervous looking men walked out of the building she was trying to get into. There was a small cloth bag held on a bandolier about her chest, something she'd picked up from her locker.

Beside her, dressed normally, Issei was standing more casually by her side and rolling his eyes as the two men, not guards, walked out toward the parking lot.

Mizuki crept along the edge of the wall, Issei walking behind her and gripping the bridge of his nose, and pushed inside, immediately rolling for cover to the side.

There was neither cover nor a reason for it.

"Inaba, what are you..." he started to ask.

"Shh," Mizuki said. "They might hear you."

"The building is just about empty," he noted. "Though it should be guarded."

"Yeah, this one's a lot easier to sneak into than the one I was planning to go to," Mizuki said moving toward the currently vacant security desk. "You really have to get that circle thingy working better."

"Apparently long distances is easier tha..." Issei paused in speech. "Why were you sneaking into a power substation or do I want to know?"

"College entrance exams," Mizuki said.

"You're sixteen," he said.

"I know, I like to be prepared," the girl said, sitting in the desk and flipping randomly through camera sights.

"What does a power sub-station have to do with a test two years from now?" the martial artist demanded.

"Just in case they use IR beams," Mizuki said. "So I can cut the power."

"IR beams? Wha...?" he thought about it a moment. "Are you planning to heist the test answers?"

"No!" Mizuki said. "That would be cheating."

"Then..." he waved his hand helplessly.

"I'm going to scramble the grading machines and destroy the test sheets," she said. "Then I get a retest."

Issei stared at her, blinking.

"Have you ever thought about studying?" he asked.

"Come on!" she said. "It's two years away, I have to get ready."

She finished fiddling with the security desk and stood up, stretching loudly until she remembered that she was supposed to be a ninja.

"Shhh," she said, tiptoeing down the middle of the hall, pantomiming holding the sword Issei hadn't allowed her to bring.

The martial artist put a palm to his face.

He followed her to a door, noticing her peek up into the window cautiously. The comment on his mouth died when he saw a God and Goddess in the room "examining" each other. He ducked down under the window pulling Mizuki down with him.

"Are you insane?"

"I think they're a little too busy to pay attention," Mizuki whispered. "Besides, aren't you one of them now? You can beat them up right?"

"And bring the other fifty to eighty thousand of them running," Issei noted, he glanced up into the window again, blushing red as he did so. "Is that what you want?"

"Well, not right away," Mizuki said, taking a small box out of her bag and opened it up.

Issei looked down in time to see a couple of pieces of paper shift into butterflies and fly up off a smaller box. One flew up into the air and then sputtered into flame as it tried to cross the dimensional boundaries. The other flittered up to Mizuki's face...and stuck to it before unfolding out into parchment again.

The martial artist quickly covered Mizuki's mouth to prevent her from crying out and then pulled the parchment off her face, noting the angry look steaming out from underneath.

"Inaba. If you aren't in a life threatening situation and need to hide right now, Eija's grounded and your life is going to be...interesting," Issei read. "If you are in a life-threatening situation, the little box will give you a distraction after about ten seconds."

"Ooo, distraction," Mizuki whispered, looking back behind her at the sounds going on there. "I should have brought more of these. I wonder what it does."

Issei and Mizuki looked over it curiously, noting all the spirals worked into the outer carvings of the box inside the box.

"Let's save it for after we get further into this place," Issei said. "These two are obviously the guards so we should be able to do whatever it is you have in mind."

Right, Mizuki said, sneaking off down the hallway as quietly as she could. This time, much as it galled him, Issei did likewise until they were a few turns further into the building.

They came to something like a control and saw about three nervous technicians inside, playing cards or something.

"Hmmm," Mizuki said, tossing the little box up and down as she considered what to do.

Issei snatched it as soon as he saw what she was doing and glared at her.

"Okay," Mizuki said, reaching into her bag again and pulling out a small bottle with netting on top of an uncorked top...inside were a number of angry looking hornets.

"How did you..." Issei asked.

"I smoked them unconscious and tweezered them in," she said off-handedly. "Been trying to keep them fed...think some of them died...ehh."

With the eh, she opened the door and tossed the bottle in hard and then sat around the corner.

Issei blinked and then moved around to join her just as the men in the control room came running out chased by a small, splitting swarm.

Mizuki was inside the room quickly and starting to push buttons and twist dials all over the place.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" he asked.

"I told you my plan wasn't ready yet, but I know red-lines are bad," Mizuki said. "Sooo..."

Issei pondered that for a moment as he watched her go from station to station fiddling until things started reaching danger levels.

"You are insane," he said.

And then she started running out the door, grabbing his arm and pulling him with her. She almost stopped dead in the attempt, but he was moving not long after her and both were running down the hall way as alarms started going off in the building.

Heading back to the parking lot they ran bolt past the two confused and angered Gods, who watched them and then back into the hallway, slow to react.

"We could use that distraction!" Mizuki shouted.

Issei was already pulling it out of his pocket and opening before casting it behind him. The action giving him a peek back just in time to react and tackle Mizuki to the ground before a stream of summoned spears could skewer either her or him.

Scrambling back to his feet, Issei hauled Mizuki up as the girl reached into her bag and pulled out a bag of what looked like marbles which she tossed behind her.

The Goddess running after them tripped on the small round spheres and landed firmly on her jar as Issei and Mizuki fled out the door.

Behind them, Ranma's sealed tornado ripped into existence in the hallway, pulling both Gods in and set them to spinning within the small funnel for much longer than Issei and Mizuki needed to get away.

Issei and Mizuki didn't stop running until they were well up a hill and able to look down and see other people had fled the building.

The building which otherwise looked just fine.

"So, is anything going to..." Mizuki started to ask.

And then the first of several explosions ripped through the building. All around them throughout the night, power shut off. and below, explosions were still moving throughout the station.

"Now let's try that circle thing to get back to the school," Mizuki said meekly.

"I have a better idea," a new voice said. "Tell me where to go and I'll take you there without need of experimentation."

Both turned to see a Demon standing there and stepping in between them.

* * *

Far to the south, smoke and darkness wrapped about several forms as they dropped through the air slowly, landing in shadows in the wild parts of Kyushu.

"All right," Groseaux said. "Remember, leave any active Mantle to the Ainur or Gods with us..."

Someone cleared a throat.

"Correction, Asgardians," he said with a smile, remembering some of the Demons were connected to Yggdrasil. "If you have to take on a Mantle, evidence is that if they distracted even small arms is good enough. Everybody has the right ammo, the armor piercing will still be difficult. Naiki Satomi could survive 50 cal while she was still half-human due to training. So don't be shy about explosives."

He looked around.

"Any questions?" he asked, receiving none, he nodded. "Then let's go secure some civilian populations."

They weren't the only group slipping in with the benefit of shadows and darkness that conveniently did not inhibit anyone else.

* * *

Wraith and her team ducked into a looted department store as the explosion in the distance spurred the Mantles they'd been...modifying according to Moloch's instructions.

The three machines got started as their pilots entered into them and started to run down the street.

The now familiar shimmer of a mana aura limned each of the three Mantles briefly before they erupted one after another into bursts of uncontrolled energy and fire.

"Well, makes sense the Demon would know how to sabotage a God's machine," one of the soldiers said.

Wraith moved up to a second floor to look out toward the other three target points and was pleased to note explosions in that direction as well. Then she focused on the explosion that had likely attracted the attention.

"A power substation," she noted. "Could be one of Geisthexe's shadows.

Moving down to the floor she looked to the soldiers around her.

"Let's go, looks like Moloch, Tofu and Seina's groups were successful as well," she said. "But that still leaves all the Mantles around Japan or that were already active to come track us down."

Nodding, the small group of saboteurs took to the back alleys and started moving casually through the night time streets, made even darker as they passed through the region now denied power.

It was morning with a dawning sun before they were climbing up the trail to the entrance of their safehouse.

Coming down, she found Moloch already there.

"The Ono woman is out," he said seriously. "Apparently that old cursed woman wandered out to."

"Tsh, Ono probably went to get the other to come back," Wraith said. "Hopefully she's fine, seemed sensible enough. Anything else?"

* * *

Akane stood outside the bridge of her destroyer, normally she'd be inside, but for the moment, she was part of the defense system. She hadn't accepted the offer for becoming Ainur yet.

She understood Mariko's reasoning, the woman had already been thinking about taking on Kodachi. Shampoo had said something about stopping the biological clock. She and Ryuu, like Kasumi and Tofu, wanted to see whether their children would be able to accept the process.

"Approaching Kyushu," her XO said. "Those Mithril people better know what they're about, otherwise we'll be having a slaughter of civilians on our hands."

Akane passed a peach from hand to hand as she answered.

"We'd all better be sure of what we're doing," Akane said.

* * *

Early the same morning, as various naval craft were approaching the shore of Japan, Second Lieutenant Mao and Sergeant Weber were waiting outside for Sergeant Sagara to answer one of their knocks.

"What the hell is taking him so long?" Mao wondered idly.

"If this were me, you'd be screaming at the top of your lungs by now," Kurz noted.

"Yeah, but it's Sagara," Melissa said. "It isn't like he's prone to...

She stopped as Sousuke appeared down the hallway and walked up to the door as Kurz and Mao watched.

"Second Lieutenant Mao," he said, coming to attention and snapping a salute.

"Sergeant Sagara," Mao said. "Why aren't you in your assigned quarters getting ready?"

"There was an...errand that needed attending to," Sousuke said, clearly sweating nervously.

Kurz and Melissa shared a look and took in the rumpled appearance of the young mercenary's clothes including signs of lipstick on the collar.

Melissa pinched the bridge of her nose and stepped out of the way of the door gesturing for him to go inside.

"Excuse me," he said. "I shall be ready shortly."

And Sousuke vanished into the room, leaving Kurz and Melissa outside.

"You think..." Kurz asked.

"I'd rather not think about it," Mao muttered, wondering what she should tell Ranma.

* * *

"Eija!" Naiki said in relief as her sister appeared down the hallway. "There you are, what's tak..."

"I was saying my good..." Eija started to say, pushing her loose sleeves up on her arms underneath her jacket.

Naiki stopped and leaned forward as Eija came closer, taking a long breath of air through her nose and then shifting about to circle around her sister, sniffing and examining the Jindai high uniform she was still wearing.

"Is there something wrong?" Eija asked nervously.

"Okay! We're going to the shower and getting new clothes," Naiki said. "We still got some time before we're expected."

"What?" the Goddess asked in surprise. "What is wrong?"

"Unless you want 'Kaasan to know," Naiki said.

"Know what?" Eija asked, blushing furiously as she was pulled into her room by Naiki.

* * *

"This is going to take forever," Demon complained at his console. "With everything that's been going on, it'll take us months to clear this up completely."

"We don't need this completely clear yet," Mara said. "Just enough to kick the remaining bad seeds out and step up to the big leagues."

At that point, Kaname came in the room in a circle of energy. She was pulling at her blouse collar underneath her jacket. It was very clearly tight around her neck even though it hadn't been buttoned all the way.

"Sorry, I'm late," she said. "I had trouble with my clothes, they feel like they shrank or something."

Mara arched an eyebrow at Kaname as Megumi stood up and walked forward.

"Mind if I check something?" the other Ainur in the room asked.

"Uhh what do you want to check?" Kaname asked a clear expression of confusion on her face.

Megumi started to lift up one corner of Kaname's blouse collar and then another.

"It's usually under one of thes...ah here," Megumi said. "E. S. Roman letters by the way."

Kaname started to blush brightly.

"We must have gotten them mixed up in...the shower," Kaname said, flushing brightly. "I'll be right back."

Mara slapped a palm to her face and shook her head as Kaname vanished back to Atlantis. And then she thumped her head into a desk.

* * *

When Kaname appeared again, dressed in Atlantis expedition clothing now, she walked past everybody and sat down across from Megumi who was watching her with a smirk.

"Are you ready to get started now?" Mara asked.

"Yeah, you can say that," Kaname noted.

And then, Kaname took a deep breath and simply leaned back, eyes closed.

Mara and the other Demons as well as Megumi blinked in confusion for a moment, and then the blonde Demoness's eyes snapped wide.

"Go get me some of the Shadows up in the front!" Mara snapped. "Tell them to follow us in."

"Follo..."

* * *

Kaname paused as she slipped through the Silmaril network as she found a trail of what seemed to be mana crackling about as if it were some sort of lightning or electricity.

It wasn't coming from Eija, because it would have to come through Kaname first then. Then she realized that Deimosu must have been moving about and he had mana of his own.

The delay that moment of consideration gave her, however, was enough for Mara to beat her into the section of Nidhog's network that could be entered through Tessa and Naiki.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Mara demanded angrily. "Are you really planning to attack Nidhog alone? Did you hit your head? Did you have some sort of personality exchange with Naiki?"

"No, no," Kaname said angrily. "I'm thinking this through! There's no way we're going to get anywhere up there through those consoles. So let's deal with all damages from here!"

Mara sighed and stepped out Kaname's way, letting the Ainur girl into Nidhog fully and revealing the damaged and twisted throughout the mindscape as far as the eye could see.

"Okay..." Kaname said, surprised. "That's a bit bigger then I thought it was."

* * *

"Okay, paper parachutes and airplanes are pretty cool," Ranma told Yomiko. "Done that before?"

"Once, Ma'am," Yomiko said, lifting a tear from her eye. "Shall we get started?"

Ranma nodded and looked about the parking lot that they found themselves in.

One of several winged forms swooped in and landed in the area, dropping off a passenger before walking up to Ranma.

"How long do you and your feng shih need to be undisturbed," the woman said calmly.

"This might take a good few hours, Kiima," Ranma noted. "Can your people keep us covered until then?"

"Remember, Satomi," the woman noted coolly, not dignifying the question on her ability with an answer, "We will need certainty that the foolishness north of us does not contaminate our home."

"Don't worry, no radiation spill on aisle Jusendo," Ranma assured her. "Yomiko, receive any visitors she doesn't."

"Understood," Yomiko said, nodding as she picked up a book and started flipping through it with ridiculous speed.

The red-head pulled out her tools and materials then, walking towards the collected other feng shih and starting to discuss placements and locations.

The building connected to the parking lot was a large factory labeled as Kanada-Tek Paper Products.

* * *

Belfangan Groseaux and his group were one of dozens of US and Mithril forces scattered throughout the region of the invasion. Judging their strategies based on what Gods such as Lind and Athena told them about the plans to eliminate Mantles in the first taking of Asgard by the rebels.

They filtered into one of the thickly populated neighborhoods during the cover of night, basing their plans on satellite surveillance that the wall blocking teleportation in and out.

"You'd think the Gods would be more aware of things looking down on them from above," one of his troops said.

"It's been a couple of million years that we'd thought about things like cameras as adverse psychic scrying," the Asgardian noted. "I'm sure they destroyed any camera they thought might peek at them, but once the wall went up, they stopped looking up."

Belfangan nodded at that, there was always the trap as a soldier to only look at things the way they existed for you. These rebels just sounded like they were more prone to that trap than normal.

"Okay," the Lieutenant said, "One Mantle looks idle, that's your target Raiden," the Asgardian Demon nodded, "Looks like ten other Gods hanging around loosely. Damn, I see an armed human guard."

A puff of smoke appeared behind him, and he turned about, looking toward the Demon that appeared there, a gun at her head almost instantly.

"One of Mara's!" she said quickly and quietly, raising her hands.

Belfangan nodded and his troops held off.

"How'd you see us?" he asked.

"Accident," she said. "I'm watching the same group."

"Any more of you?" he asked. "We're told that she didn't leave that many of you behind."

"We can teleport about the nation," she said, relaxing. "Makes it a little bit easier to cover large areas. Mostly we're finding groups that are trying to fight back and coordinating between them. And there's something you should know..."

"Does it have to do with the armed humans down there that seem to be very much not resisting?" Belfangan asked, looking down toward the target area.

"Yes," she said clearly a bit deflated at having her thunder stolen. "They've got a couple of cults in the area. People that want immortality or think the Gods are things you should worship."

"Got information on how many down there?" the lieutenant asked.

"At least twenty, maybe as many as forty," the Demoness said. "There aren't all that many of them, and they're generally dregs, but it does complicate things."

"How about the enemy as a whole here?" Belfangan asked.

"Roughly a third of Zeus's people," she said. "More than twenty thousand Gods ranging from high category three to high category two. An unknown number of cultists. Under Nike, her Rea...excuse me, Domain his Victory, so this could be touch and go."

"You're coordinating right?" Belfangan asked.

"Right," the Demoness said.

"How many of you on Kyushu?" he asked.

"We're down some because to these cultists," the Demoness said. "But we have some JSDF and American intelligence types, two other Shadows, a handful of exorcists, mostly young. And a scattering of soldiers or old veterans. What are your numbers on power users?"

"Asgard is fielding three thousand, five hundred category one," Raiden said. "Nifelheim is putting in three hundred Rakshasha with a two thousand Shadows and Gehenna Complex in support. The humans have around five hundred Ainur. Maybe thirty category ones. And about three thousand assorted mortal power users."

"That's not enough," the Demoness said quietly. "We have less category ones than they have Mantles and the rest of us will be flooded in Gods."

"Maybe on their own," Belfangan said with a smile. "Were you in Tokyo for the Demons?"

"Not really, no," the Demoness said.

"If you remember your history, girl," Raiden said. "It was mortal weaponry that drove the Gods and Demons both away in the days of the silthine."

"You're not dropping nukes are you?" she asked a bit nervously.

"Not that much firepower," the Asgardian Demon assured her.

"Let your people know that stuff is coming," Belfangan said.

"Going now," the Demoness said, "I hope you're not being foolish in this attack." She vanished into a puff of smoke.

"Now, revised," the tall black-man said. "Mostly the same idea but more targets."

A burst of smoke atop the mantle was the first visible move by the infiltration team and the first clue the Gods had that an attack had started.

Raiden appeared atop the Mantle hand outstretched and instantly the operator inside scrambled to start up the aura enhancing nature of the Mantle. He was far too slow, however, as Raiden drew mana from Yggdrasil, converted it to pishogue to be usable by him and even with the extra step involved, the blast of red lightning that tore through down through the sky tore apart the Mantle underneath.

Moments before the vehicle exploded, the Asgardian Demon vanished again into a puff of smoke.

He appeared in the middle of an open field, entering a stance with a summoned spear, smiling grimmly as the other collected Gods considered whether or not to attack him when Yggdrasil backed him rather than them.

"Don't stand there, destroy the traitorous reptile!" one shouted.

As the Demon attracted attention, heavy assault rifles ripped open into the backs of the Gods, tearing some apart and sending others diving for cover.

While that fight was going on, the majority of the Mithril team were filtering through the neighborhood, finding and removing cultists well before the loud fight happened.

* * *

Nike leaped up into the air, wings spreading as she felt heavy use of chi and mana mostly, with increasing use of pishogue all over the island she was responsible for.

This wasn't simply more harassment by the handful of saboteurs and Demons stirring up disloyal mortals. No, this was an attack by fully powered Immortals with the support of working Networks behind them.

And the first attackers were already on the island and taking hold of the places where most of the human population had been directed together.

The winged Goddess was more than a little surprised. She'd been expecting the first strike to come from the mortal ships that were now amassing and getting ready to fire. Looking out towards them, she grimaced as she caught sight of distant puffs of smoke and water. They were too far out for their cannons, but those things they called missiles: massive explosive spears, could be launched from that far out.

Grimacing she swooped down to the ground into a group of her soldiers.

"Move now unless you're disloyal to my father," she shouted. "Victory is on our side."

* * *

Akane watched the missiles flying up through the air above her ship, moving in to give cover for the mass of troops that would be landing soon. A lot of the AS pilots in the transports around them were less than thrilled about taking on opponents that could practically ignore conventional ASes, but the lack of real armor underneath the aura at least made it possible.

Out ahead, Akane watched as some of the swarm of missiles were taken down by blasts of energy and power. But several still got through, and it was only the first salvo.

There was probably a billion dollars worth of ordnance flowing into Kyushu ahead of them on precisely directed paths. When her ship and the others got close enough, then a more traditional naval barrage would begin.

She looked to her side and noted the water rising significantly between her ship and one of the transports.

Immediately, she lashed out with a raw blast of chi into the bulging water, sending it crashing back down and flattening out. Out of the water came an irate figure that landed on the deck of her ship, pointing her out.

"You there, mortal!" he shouted. "You dare challenge the Gods. This land belongs to us!"

"Really," she said. "You don't look a thing like Amaterasu."

He snarled and started to step forward, apparently eager to continue the banter when the first security personnel opened up on him, slashing across him with the sub-machine guns that they had used until recently in hunting and fighting pirates.

The first salvo didn't kill the toughened God, but forced him to hide behind cover. He started reaching out towards the water around him and Akane could hear her boat creaking.

Leaping forward, she landed behind his cover and with a loud cry reached out to grab him with the pillar breaking grab of the Yamasenken.

Before he could call the waters could overly damage her ship, she felt his back break in her arms. Tossing the God to the ground, she still watched him carefully, crawling for the edge and toward the water.

Her security crew swarmed over him then and knocked him cold.

"Take him downstairs," Akane said. "There should be an onmyouji to seal his powers and then see how injured he..."

She stopped as she looked out toward the island and saw an approaching Mantle. Turning back toward her bridge she called out.

"Turn! Get ready for a broadside on that target!" She paused to point out a deck gun and call out to the gun crew there. "Hold fire on that gun until I tell you specifically, then let loose!"

"Aye, Commander," the gun grew said, reminding her of the promotion.

The destroyer turned to face its side toward the incoming Mantle as she returned to the bridge and the intercom.

"All missiles, all guns, on that target," she shouted. "As accurately as possible, and watch the friendly fire. Now!"

The destroyer shuddered as each cannon roared out and the racks of missiles launched outward. It was small compared to the old days of battleships and cruisers, but even now when a ship unleashed everything it had, the result was impressive.

Akane tapped her fingers and watched as the Mantle glowed blue and the bursts of smoke and fire around it seemed to do little more than make pause in the flight driving it out over the water. But she was satisfied to see that it distracted the God-craft away from the transports and onto her boat, which continued to blast the vehicle with almost every gun and missile it had.

Once she saw the aura crack and a lash of fire whip out to sear across the Mantle, but then it was coming in down on top of them, pushing the forward of her ship almost down under the water before it righted itself. The machine towered over the deck, gloating in it's superiority.

"Fools, did you really think that such a show could stop a weapon made by the Gods?" the pilot demanded as he opened the cockpit and stood out to stand over them.

"Deck gun," Akane said calmly into the intercom as the Mantle's aura faded out in its pilot's apparent glee.

"That might have harmed one of your primitive chi-enhancing vehicles," the unseen God continued. "But..."

The deck gun took advantage of that moment of vulnerability and unleashed a near endless stream of bullets into the Mantle, just about cutting it in half and knocking it over the side. A moment later it exploded into a pillar of water.

The vehicle's pilot found himself fortunately tumbled to the deck of the ship and looking up into the barrels of several weapons pointed his way.

"Get us back on course to get in range for a proper supporting barrage," Akane commanded. "Assuming we still have ammo after that."

* * *

Ryuu watched the threat to his wife's boat from several ships away before turning back to his task. Akane was serving double duty as a ship commander and the chi user, but all he had to focus on was countering anything weird the Gods might send within his reach.

And then to basically act as armor or anti-armor when they got to shore.

The rebel Gods under Zeus had to hold the island, because other wise, that gave the lot of them an opening into the dimensional wall and the hundreds of category ones on their side could spread out amongst the rest of Japan wherever they wanted. It would still be difficult given the sheer number of rebel Gods, but

He was surprised when the first attack directed against his area came from the shore defense batteries, missiles for the most part. But he didn't hesitate.

Even if there were anti-missile boats in the fleet, it would be a bad idea to simply assume that they'd be enough.

The wave of vacuum blades whipped out from him out into the air, intersecting with missiles and continuing on as they sliced through. Dissipating somewhere out over the water.

* * *

"We still do not have contact with the teams inside the engagement area," Mardukas told Tessa. "There seems to be a sort of electromagnetic field interfering with communication."

"Is it affecting the missiles' course?" Tessa asked in concern.

"Not yet," Mardukas said. "But we're still aiming mostly for shore. The US and Japanese are reporting the same issues. Missiles are to be aimed as closely within the bounds of the effect as possible until then. Most air strikes are held back until it can be cleared."

"Miss Geisthexe is out of contact," she noted idly. "Kali is on Kyushu. Mrs Morisato should be acting in cover on one of the ships, see if you can contact her, I need to ask a question about the amount of power Zeus should have and the amount this all would take. My suspicion is that this is a lot more than he should be able to do right now."

"He could be manipulating it through these Mantles," Mardukas noted.

"Possibly," she said, tapping her fingers. "But the phrasing I've always heard is 'able to compete with' a category one. This feels a bit too subtle for the implication."

* * *

The Naval barrage had scattered all over the shoreline, adding to the missiles and turning the air into a mass of thick dark smoke that held above everything. The barrage only slowed as the transports started to reach land.

Naiki came up onto the land reluctantly out of the water. Like Hecate, someone had tried to corrupt some of the wildlife into monsters. It wasn't something she'd ever do to the sharks she appreciated.

Feeding the monsters to the sharks in the area she was responsible for was another matter.

"I don't think this is going to be a safe beach for swimming for a while," noted one of the soldiers passing her off one of the transports she'd been swimming alongside.

"Depends on who's doing the swimming," Naiki said.

American M-9s started to come up onto the beach from the water with Naiki. A little ways down the beach, she saw one of the four remaining Demonic Carapaces, all of which were being used in this action somewhere. Probably piloted by an Asgardian capable of full power, though.

They were under attack almost instantly, a tank in between a group of soldiers obliterated by a blast of raw power as gunfire started to sparkle down on the attackers.

Naiki grimaced as one bullet struck her and bounced off, not high enough caliber to be a problem for her and she focused instead on the Mantle coming down the street at them.

Stomping her foot down first, she sent a crack of opening earth outward across, hoping to set the vehicle off balance. Immediately she stepped forward into the highest form of the yamasenken that she was practiced in.

A burst of wind pushed into her vacuum blades then, scattering them and washing over Naiki and the soldiers behind her like a typhoon. The M-9s coming up staggered against the wind as did Naiki, though the tanks held better and unleashed a barrage of fire at the Mantle, causing it to erupt into fire along a blue glow of an enhanced aura.

The distraction did end the wind, however, and Naiki reached outward.

"Disciple of Smoke, your apprentice seeks your power," Naiki called out, the start of spell.

The thick smoke swarmed in and clustered about the Mantle like a winter blanket, obscuring its vision.

The tanks fired again, with the M-9s adding their own fire and, as the Mantle tried to clear the smoke away, dissipating its protective aura to do so, it was cut to pieces.

However, a number of other Gods came swarming in wielding swords and spells and other power, exchanging fire with Naiki, the soldiers about her and other people.

* * *

Sayoko, Melinoe and Meryl found themselves seated at the head of a table in the Imperial Palace as hundreds of Gods and Goddesses allied with Zeus and the rebels sat around loudly celebrating something.

The three looked about with something like disgust to note the number of women who would probably sleep with Zeus at little more than a suggestion that he wanted them. Though the disgust was still deeper for the rapist who apparently felt it necessary to have lovers that needed conquering.

Throughout the room, human servants were moving about, almost completely ignored by the Gods in the midst of their party.

"Everyone," Zeus called up. "Right now, the usurpers of our rightful home are attacking our new stronghold with these new Immortals and the remnants of the Demons. They're throwing mortals at us as if it would make a difference."

He paused and took up a chalice, much better than the cups these waifish Japanese had, and drained it as the Gods around him chortled.

"Even worse," he called out. "They're taking direction from mortals! As if the mortals had a rightful authority."

There was a chorus of boos and heckles then.

"Clearly," Zeus said. "They'll find the situation otherwise when they cross blades with my daughter Nike."

This was met with a chortle of laughter.

"But just to be sure," Zeus said. "I've called for some aide from some recent additions to our ranks."

He smiled and came up behind Meryl who flinched as he gripped her shoulders. A shiver worked through her as he held her, mixing horror and pleasure in her eyes. She gripped Melinoe's eyes tightly and held her mouth closed to prevent from crying out.

"This Demoness, apparently made a living at a mortal company," he said. "And she's thrown off the shackles of these unworthy to join my court."

Zeus moved on to Melinoe, and gripped her shoulders the same way.

"And another of my daughters, until recently confused by the weak policies of her mother's colleagues," he said. "And lastly."

And here he grabbed Sayoko in a way that seemed outwardly sophisticated while having none of feeling of it, he pulled her out of the chair and directed her to face the others.

"My own wife has fled my company and taken up with the usurpers of our proper place," he said. "Kami-sama's weak following. It seems proper that, in the age of a return to old glories, that the new queen should reflect the newest of the Immortals. What do you have to say to this, Sayoko Mishima?"

It was most likely just a spit in the eye of Hera, and Sayoko knew at she stood there with all the dignity she had.

"A wouldn't be the queen of a man who can't satisfy a woman," she said coldly.

Zeus's smile did not fade as his following laughed at the commentary, but Sayoko did scream out as he gripped her arm hard and put her, with false gentleness, back into her chair.

"Obviously that doesn't describe me," Zeus said, gripping her shoulders as she tried to recover. "Now, to aid my daughter, I've...asked for their help in certain ways."

Eyes started to drift to the signs of recent bleeding on the marks of all three women.

"I've arranged for a toast after this," the mad God said, pointing toward the servant closest to him. "You there, start pouring for the toast. Nobody drink just yet, we'll have this in a moment."

The servant, of average height for a young man and sleight of build, almost like a woman, nodded quietly, bowing low as Zeus looked past and into the sea of approving faces.

"Let's get started, shall we?" Zeus asked, moving to stand behind the three as they cringed, trying to prepare for what was coming. "The sooner for the toast."

Zeus reached in through their minds, not bothering with the trick of making it even seem pleasant, and into Nidhog and Silmaril, and past some of the immediate blocks on him in Yggdrasil.

The celebrating quieted briefly as the three women shrieked in clear pain.

The servant took a sharp intake of breath and gripped the pitcher of wine intended by someone for the toast tightly.

* * *

As Zeus reached out, Sayoko felt herself fall back into the mindscape and watch as he pushed through her into Silmaril and through Meryl into the clutter of Nidhog. In her writhing, she was still aware of this, just as she was aware that Yggdrasil was closing tightly around Melinoe as Zeus pushed in to his home system through her.

And she realized briefly, the connection went two ways.

Wincing and shaking in her mental self, her very soul, just as much as her body was, she pushed herself backwards deeper through Zeus's being out the other side and finding a solid wall of singing and data there.

Another twitch of Zeus's mind brought her crying out and dropping to her knees outside the wall.

* * *

"We confirmed it was Melinoe," one of the Goddesses around Peorth said. "Zeus was trying to access through her. We've already shut it down, but he may have gotten a limited curse through."

"There is some activity on Zeus's link," another noted. "But...that's chi."

"What?" Peorth asked, moving over to look at the information in question. "I need to see this for myself."

* * *

Sayoko brought herself up to her feet again and tried to take in the wall in front of her, trying to understand it. Another burst of pain ripped through her and she hunched over tightly.

_Sayoko Mishima,_ a voice gasped.

Breathing heavily, she looked up to see a rosy aura across the other side of the wall.

_I know you..._ Sayoko shook her head. _How do I build one of these?_

Peorth bent down in the mindscape as Sayoko cringed and waited for the other woman to meet her eyes.

_I'll lead you through it,_ she said.

* * *

Thor stood in victory over one of the fallen Mantles after having pounded it into submission with the help of the mortals around him. He was looking about for more targets when a sudden pain wrapped over him, dropping him to his knees for a moment before he pushed himself back up.

Though clearly even that was an effort suddenly.

It was being repeated across all the fields of conflict along the shores and cities of Kyushu.

* * *

In the DaDanaan, Tessa clutched at the arms of her command chair and cried out in surprise at the attack out of nowhere, head pounding vehemently.

"Captain," Mardukas called out, coming to her side.

"I'm...fine..." she said shaking visibly and sweating. "Mardukas, take the...helm."

* * *

Eija was pulling out an injured soldier and starting to work on stopping his bleeding when the virus struck her and she paused, gritting her teeth.

Suddenly she was very thankful of all those years when casting spells was so painful, it let her set that aside and focus on saving the soldier's life before she moved aside and tried to focus on the pain instead.

* * *

Kaname winced in the mindscape of Nidhog as Eija's pain ripped through her.

_Eija, what's wrong?_ she demanded.

_Some...kind of attack,_ the girl responded.

Mara and the other Demons with Kaname paused in their examination of the terrain around them to look at her.

_What's going on, Kaname?_ Mara asked.

_You can't hear her?_ Kaname asked.

_She's not in front of us,_ Mara said. _What's going on?_

_Mara!_ one of the Demons said, pointing out into Nidhog toward the distance where a storm of lightning shaped mana was spreading outward.

_I saw something like that in Silmaril,_ Kaname said. _I thought it was Deimosu._

_Oh joy,_ Mara said and then looked toward one of the Demons. _All right, you go back to the physical World and tell the lot of them at the consoles to redirect efforts for now._

The collected Demons nodded as Kaname gritted her teeth, so to speak and led the Demons with her back toward Silmaril. Mara and the other Demons traveled with her, finding that the link between Nidhog and Silmaril was indeed infested.

_Push through, carefully!_ Mara said.

Kaname wasn't sure how long it took for Mara and the handful of other virus experts to push through the virus to where Naiki connected with Tessa, finding the two of their forms fading painfully into the mindscape slowly.

_Clear them,_ Mara said quickly.

And then they were standing the middle of a forced clearing in the lightning around Naiki and Tessa's minds recovering slowly from the attack.

_Naiki,_ Tessa said. _Back to the fight..._

_I'm going,_ the Demoness of Torrent said fading back to the real world.

_What is the manner of attack,_ Tessa started to say. _I'll..._

_Excuse me,_ Mara said. _If you're clear, you're needed back in the battle too. We're the virus people, let us handle this._

Reluctantly, Tessa nodded.

_Fine, Miss Geisthexe,_ she said. _I leave it to you then._

Tessa faded out of the mindscape then and Mara and the Demons started the process of pushing through the edge of the attacked area into the clear to find they weren't the only ones there.

And they weren't the first there.

_It's limited to the minds at Kyushu right now,_ one hesitant soul that Kaname recognized as Sarah said. _But it's growing._

_It is getting a sustained amount of power from an outside force,_ another figure noted before looking around. _This...this whole mindscape thing is...pretty awesome._

_Focus, Rodney,_ a third figure noted before glancing back towards Kaname and the Demons with her. _Who's this?_

_I'm Kaname Chidori,_ the Ainur responded. _This stuff is in Nidhog too, these guys came to see if they needed to do something here._

_Shadows under Mara Geisthexe,_ one said indicating the named Demoness. _Virus experts._

_Really,_ Rodney said. _That'll be helpful. We'll be able to do even more damage now._

_I'm supposed to go on to Yggdrasil from here,_ Kaname said, looking toward Mara for confirmation.

_Not alone,_ Mara said. _Eija is going to be on the edge of this on Yggdrasil's side._

She pointed out two of her Demons and gestured toward Kaname.

_Help her clear the way,_ she said before turning to the other Ainur. _Major Carter, right?_

_Right,_ Sam said. _Is this in Nidhog too?_

* * *

An Ainur froze in the middle of a fight before being blasted into pieces by the mantle he'd been trying to keep focused. He wasn't the only casualty by a long shot.

Elsewhere, a Demon collapsed while coming to grab someone to bring them back to medical. Immediately, the human soldiers grabbed him and the wounded soldier up and pulled them back into cover.

For the Gods and cultists fighting on foot, not much changed as mostly they've been facing the human soldiers anyway. It was with the mantles that the balance of the encounter really changed as many of the power-users whose job was to keep them focused had to be pulled quickly to safety.

However, they were not unprepared for this.

Two men with an RPG crept along cover as fighting raged around them and tanks and ASes exchanged fire with a single Mantle. Four M-9s firing and disengaging as tanks sought continually loosening cover.

A tank was crushed, an M-9 torn to pieces by what looked like blades of force. But they kept up the pressure, falling back slowly as the RPG crew crept forward into position, hoping the infantry about the Mantle didn't find them first.

As the God Mantle stepped past them, all of its power and energy focused forward, they fired there rocket, blowing a massive hole in the back and toppling it forward. And the M-9s, tanks and military surged forward to engage the Gods and mortals that now lacked heavy support.

Elsewhere, where the Mantles were spotted coming from further out, the answer was simpler. Radio it in to one of the many subs and cruisers further out.

And then the cruise missiles came.

* * *

"The Immortals are crippled at least temporarily," Akane said. "Going ashore to support the advance. XO has the bridge."

"Aye, Ma'am," the XO said. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Akane said with a smile as she took out a peach.

It took her only a brief amount of time to cross to the shore, roof hopping from transport to transport until she was on shore and taking out a peach to bite into it as she moved from cover to cover up to the front.

"Uh...Commander?" a JSDF ground soldier noted as she came up beside him. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm your heavy support," she said with a wink and a twinkle as she finished the peach and looked out to see an approaching Mantle with support.

Taking a deep breath, and Akane stepped forward and roared forth, borrowing power from Persephone's gift as she shaped her chi outward into the largest demon-head technique she'd ever imagined.

Ahead of her, the Mantle, the Gods on foot and the humans with them, all paused before the massive illusion of her head modified to monstrous form.

And the surround soldiers took that moment to tear the Mantle apart before its pilot could recover.

Akane moved forward ahead of the soldiers and launched into a yamasenken dance to obliterate the forces immediately in front of her with vacuum blades. As for those on the sides trying to get toward her from the flanks.

She wasn't alone.

Walking forward in a clear moment, she stepped up onto the wreckage of a Mantle, took a knife and scored it across her palm before letting the blood drip down over the fallen vehicle in clear sight of everybody nearby.

* * *

Ryuu rushed forward, finishing his own peach and growing with each step as he found plenty of chi on hand for using a technique that Genma had that was, until now, prohibitively draining.

The pilot in the Mantle immediately in front of him froze in shock as the mortal in front of him grew to tower over even the mantle and then a large black blade of vacuum appeared in Ryuu's hand.

He stepped forward and slashed through the Mantle before looking on for the next one and jumping towards it with a kick that sent it flying backwards even as much of the impact was absorbed by a battle aura. And then the vacuum sword in his hand was launched as a crescent.

* * *

The border between the crystalline precision of the Silmaril and the organic serenity of Yggdrasil was marked by a mass of lightning encompassing Eija's form.

Kaname and the Demons with her, however, were surprised to find she was not alone.

_Sousuke?_ Kaname asked surging forward and almost jumping into the lightning without thinking.

_Stay back!_ Sousuke said with difficulty. _This...spreads._

_Eija, Sousuke!_ Kaname asked. _Are you okay? Wait, that's stupid, of course you're not._

_This, does not seem as bad as Hecate's virus,_ Eija said. _But, it is...distracting. _

_Miss Chidori,_ one of the Demons said. _We should cleanse these two before moving on. _

_Right,_ Kaname noted, flushing in anger at the implication that she wouldn't help either of her…and then she was flushing for another reason.

As they had been the entire time, she pushed forward, shaping the numbers and symbols of the Whispers as the Demons brought forth their own symbols out of the distant Call and slashed into the lightning piece by piece until it was pushed off both Sousuke and Eija and Kaname was able to reach out in the Mindscape to hug each of them.

_Thank goodness you're all right,_ Kaname said.

_That was timely, Kaname,_ Sousuke said. _Thank you._

_Indeed,_ Eija said taking a heavy breath. _I was making little progress either on my own or with Sousuke's help. Though it lost a bit of effect in trying to deal with us both. Possibly because of how we're two different beings. _

_How the hell did you get here, Sousuke?_ Kaname asked. _Well, I know how you got in here...but how did you know to get in here? _

_I came when I heard Eija call out,_ Sousuke noted taking a breath.

_When you heard..._ Kaname started.

_...me call out?_ Eija completed.

_I responded that I was coming,_ Sousuke answered. _I wasn't sure you could hear, however._

_You did..._ Kaname started to ask.

_I believe Miss Chidori and each of you two have tasks,_ the Demon noted. _You may discuss your lover's bond later._

The three looked a bit embarrassed at that.

* * *

Naiki grimaced irritably as she ducked around a corner again.

"I can't wait for someone to fix Nidhog so I can get in the same playing ground as everybody else," she said.

"Given the track record in the file I saw when you were assigned to me, Miss Satomi," the US officer with her said. "I'm not sure how much more power they'd give you. Just focus on support and not wishes."

"Yeah, yeah," Naiki said. "There's still a lot of smoke in the air, but I really don't want to see how many favors I owe Geisthexe-san after this."

She started enchanting the spell again, blinding their enemies with smoke so that the infantry and vehicles with her could press forward. Or else give Tessa a location to send cruise missiles to.

It was hardly what she was used to in fighting. But at least she was doing something.

They were passing forward in the street, pushing back the enemy after another mantle had fallen to distraction and human weapons. Out of the surrounding field of debris, Gods and human cultists swarmed into the middle of them, cutting the advance in two and turning the situation into the sort of chaotic mass of individual fights that some of the Gods expected were true warfare.

"There's the little Demon," a woman's voice called out.

Naiki turned around in time to see a sword slashing out for her neck. The Demoness ducked back and responded with a handstand kick that knocked her opponent backward. It was then easy to see that her sword wielding enemy was some sort of winged Goddess.

"So, a warrior and not just a little saboteur," she said, wiping at her mouth. "I am Nike! Goddess of Victory, who are you to stand before me, Demon?"

Naiki flipped up to her feet and took in the Goddess hovering in front of her as battle raged about them.

"I am Naiki, Demoness of Torrent."

The winged Goddess stared at her in rank disbelief.

"You dare take my name?" she demanded.

"Are you going to talk or fight?" Naiki asked. "Cause if you talk to long, someone is going to shoot you before I get to take you out."

Sneering, Nike charged forward, swinging her sword.

Naiki responded by dodging around the weapon and pushing forward into Nike's armored chest, feeling the rib cage press down into itself on the Goddess.

She pressed the advantage as the Goddess tumbled backwards, but was surprised when the wings slashed forward, feathers cutting into her shoulders.

Both took a step back, Nike again hovering bare inches over the ground. They took each other in again and then Naiki charged forward.

* * *

"Take care of her," Deimosu told Eija as his sister leaned over Yonjuu and checked her injuries.

"There's no question of that, she'll be in bed for some time, but she'll be fine" she said in a relieved tone. "Are you not afflicted as well?"

"No," Deimosu said grimly. "Maybe because he thinks of me as his son."

Eija nodded and moved to carry Yonjuu further into the medical area to find somewhere to put her where she could lie down and not be either at risk or in the way.

Yonjuu left with his sister, he turned back into the battle and pushed forward to find the front lines. He arrived in time to see Herb attacking a Mantle along with his son, forcing it down to the ground as they battered its aura mercilessly.

Deimosu lashed out with his own power, adding a third attack in the form of a lightning bolt which stabbed through the aura's split attention and destroyed the Mantle with in.

Coming up beside them, he stopped as he recognized Basil.

"You!" the two of them said suddenly.

"What is he doing here?" Deimosu demanded. "He tried to kidnap my sisters and that Kaname girl."

"He is doing his penance," Herb said, turning to look toward Basil and forestall him from speaking on the subject.

"How is it that you're not afflicted with the same attack these other 'Immortals' suffer from?" Basil demanded. "Is the enemy ruler not your father?"

"He might think he is," Deimosu said. "Hey! They need help down there."

He pointed out toward one of the dinosaur-like Carapaces stopped cold where it stood in front of the littered destruction of several Mantles. Ahead of it several Gods were coming in with clear intention to destroy it.

From where they stood, Deimosu and the Musk could see the US military trying to hold and support the frozen Carapace, but it was out of cover and another Mantle was coming down the way.

Deimosu leaped forward as the two dragons flew down after him.

Unable to fall back and leave the Carapace vulnerable, the humans and Musk found themselves quickly facing a situation almost the reverse of what had been the normal circumstance.

They were being flooded with enemies, even with Herb and Basil focusing on the Mantle.

Like elsewhere, this particular fight was degenerating into individual conflicts around the Carapace and out of the mass, a loud, European looking God charged forward wielding a long spear.

Deimosu stepped in front of him and batted the spear aside before stepping forward with an Amaguriken into the God's side. An attack which only just brushed the enemy.

"Well, a true warrior amongst these new Immortals?" the God said, stepping back and holding his spear out with a smirk on his face. "I am Cu Cuchlain, God of Challenge. What is your name?"

"I am Deimosu Satomi," the Ainur said. "Son of Ranma Satomi. Practioner of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Ainur."

"Well, well," Cu Cuchlain said. "You're the one we have to thank for all this."

Deimosu flinched and stepped forward grimacing.

"Isn't it glorious?" he asked.

"You like all this?" Deimosu demanded.

"Of course!" Cu Cuchlain said. "Before all I had to look forward to was fading further and further away. Now...now I get to die in battle. I had hoped it would be Ares I faced in the end, but Apollo prefers his surprise attacks."

He curled his lip and shook his head.

"Now, however," he said. "I'll get a chance to battle the one who attacked and destroyed the Doublet-System single-handed. Perhaps, you'll give me a warriors death."

"You want me to kill you," Deimosu said, confused.

"What fool would side with Zeus in this expecting to win?" he asked. "Come on, let's get on with this."

And Cu Cuchlain charged forward with his spear.

* * *

Kiima blinked as a wall of paper rose up between her and the Mantle's blast and held, although it bulged inward. And almost immediately, the paper erupted outward into a flying cloud of razor sharp edges cutting through the surrounded soldiers and then caking along the outside of the Mantle.

Yomiko's face showed clear effort as she manipulated the paper in the area around them.

From where she stood, Kiima saw no less than five paper monsters acting as heavy support for her Phoenix people whenever a Mantle might show up. Said monsters had the tendency to become walls, clouds, wrap up around enemies.

"How long can you keep this up?" Kiima asked.

"Oh, quite some time, I think," Yomiko said.

Kiima nodded and took to the air with several of her people and began darting in and out of the shards of paper to meet the Gods that were flying above them.

Ranma looked over toward the fight and frowned briefly before moving back to setting out the rest of their circle.

"Come on," she called out. "Don't get bogged down! We need to finish this."

* * *

Kaname returned to Silmaril with a Goddess on top of two Demons and found that the progress of the lightning as a whole had been stopped.

_It is here,_ the Goddess said. _We had it in Yggdrasil too. _

_Had,_ Carter noted, quickly. _As in it's gone? _

_It's more like a direct attack,_ the Goddess said. _We cut off the entry point and handling it was easy after that. Unfortunately, we caught it early._

_We need to cut off the flow at the tap,_ McKay said quickly. _But...that's a problem._

Mara cursed and looked out toward the lightning storm in front of them where it encompassed part of Silmaril and spread into Nidhog.

_The taps are in there somewhere,_ Carter said. _First thing first, maybe we can at least push the containment in a bit more, clear the path to Nidhog and attack this on all sides._

_That sounds like a good idea, Major Carter,_ the Goddess noted.

_Excuse me,_ Sarah said. _It's not responding as quickly suddenly._

_She's right,_ McKay said, walking to the edge. _It's still getting power, but it's like it's not paying attention anymore._

_And we attack,_ Mara said, waving forward. _Demons to Nidhog with me._

_McKay go with them,_ Carter said.

_Why do you have to tell me to go to Hell?_ McKay wondered.

_Rodney,_ Carter said impatiently.

_Right, right, go to hell,_ he said irritably following Mara and the Demons.

* * *

Zeus broke partly out of his trance as he turned away from Melinoe, leaving his daughter to sit, trying to catch her breath, marks bleeding from the edges and the flow only just slowing. Sayoko and Meryl still writhed in his hands, however, as his followers watched. and something else caught his attention.

An older human woman limping her way into the thrown room as the various Gods and Goddesses about him watched, chuckling. The old woman almost stumbled but was helped by the servant who was moving around, carefully pouring wine for the toast to come.

"Be careful there," the servant noted in a calm, almost serene voice, that seemed just a bit artificially deep.

"Thank you," she said.

The old woman nodded and straightened herself adjusting the oblong bundle on her back.

Standing up, but not releasing the trickle of power pushing through the two women, Zeus took in the woman's approach with a chuckle of amusement.

"And to what do we owe the honor of your coming here to our court, Madame?" Zeus asked, moving around and ignoring the continuing cries from two of the three women behind him. "You, continue pouring the drink for the toast. Don't bother with those three. Alcohol and children after all."

Tightly, the servant bowed and went back to pouring the drink for the assorted Gods, not far from being done as it was.

Melinoe, somewhat recovered of herself, tried to ease Meryl and Sayoko's pain as much as she could with the bounds placed on her power, and turned to look at Zeus.

"Monster," she snapped bitterly.

"Is that anyway to talk to your father or the father of your child?" Zeus asked. "Now, I believe I asked a question, Madam, what brings you here bearing a curse from Persephone?"

The older woman stood up straight and brought the bundle down from behind her back.

"I am Nodooka Saotome," she said. "Mother of Ranma Saotome. I am here to collect the debt."

"Really?" Zeus said, chuckling as Nodoka unwrapped her sword and drew it.

He was looking around the room as the woman drew the sword and stepped forward.

"No!" Melinoe shouted. "Don't try it! You can't..."

She winced as Zeus casually caught the blade and sent a current of electricity through it, knocking Nodoka back drawing laughter as she slammed into the wall.

"She's right," Zeus said. "No one can kill me but my own son, it's set that way, not that you had much chance in the first place."

"Do not be so secure," Nodoka said, panting and leaning on her sword to stand up, surrounded by the laughter of the Gods. "Hecate is dead by her child. Poseidon is dead by his. I learned this only recently. There's only one more of you monsters left, and one more child left to speak to you."

Zeus's smile left his face briefly at that as Nodoka stepped forward leveling her sword and charging him again.

He laughed again then, batted the inexpertly thrust sword away and gripping Nodoka by the neck.

"And you still try?" he asked.

"I was reminded," Nodoka said breathlessly around the pressure of his hand. "Of a mother's duty recently."

"A mother's duty?" Zeus scoffed. "How amusing, now what to..."

"Excuse me, Lord Zeus," the servant said quietly, bowing low, almost kow-towing. "I do not mean to interrupt. But everyone has been served for the toast."

Zeus shrugged and let Nodoka go, throwing her back to ground and across the floor, where she sat, trying to get her breath.

"Indeed," he said. "We shall deal with Dame Saotome after the toast."

He moved forward to grab his chalice and raise it high, all around him, other Gods did likewise. Behind him, the servant waited patiently with the empty tray held aside.

"To our renewal!" he shouted, receiving many likewise responses before all across the room, Gods downed their drinks.

The servant smiled.

* * *

_You almost have it,_ Peorth called out encouragingly from the other side of the wall blocking Zeus out of full use of Yggdrasil.

Sayoko once again tried to start building the wall, forcing the first pieces in over the flow of power from Zeus. It looked almost as if she'd push this first equation into place, but a burst of power through her back again.

Only this time, she was caught by another soul.

_You look like you could use some help here,_ Major Carter said in a friendly tone.

_Peorth,_ the Goddess with them said. _What are you doing here?_

_She was teaching me to wall Zeus out of Silmaril,_ Sayoko said weakly.

_If she showed you how, then go ahead and get started,_ Kaname said. _The rest of us will keep you clear._

* * *

"And we're done!" a feng shih called out.

"Then do it!" Ranma ordered.

The whole small group of feng shih bent down to pour their chi into the circle as battle continued around them.

And the wall cutting off Japan from the rest of the world broke.

* * *

"This is the beginning my..." Zeus was interrupted in his speech as the human servant stepped forward and placed the tray casually on one the table in front of him.

Removing the hat, and loosening the tunic, the servant revealed a woman's chest bandaged down to be flat and hair only recently cut to be extremely short. Then she took a knife from the table and slashed it across her palm which she held out toward Zeus in a fist as she smiled quietly.

"What is this?" Zeus asked with a chuckle.

Nodoka looked up at her and squinted, trying to recognize the woman.

"Kasumi?" she said, aghast. "Why are you here."

Kasumi said nothing as her palm bled onto the ground and behind her one God after another started retching in pain and collapsing into lifeless lumps.

"I might add," Kasumi said calmly. "I wasn't trying to kill you, Zeus. Incapacitate, yes. I do believe I over did the dose in the attempt, however."

And whatever Zeus had been about to say was cut short as a severe pain shot through his stomach and he lurched forward down to his knees in front of Kasumi, pain running through him as she looked down at him mild and unimpressed.

He tried to reach out for the power he was stealing from Silmaril, and was shocked to feel but a trickle of the energy and access before it shut off completely. A moment later and even the very limited power he'd been siphoning from the fouled up Nidhog was likewise cut off.

Behind Kasumi, Melinoe was looking around in shock as the whole room full of Gods died around her and Meryl slowly came conscious.

Sayoko struggled to her feet breathing heavily.

"We're all linked now, bastard," she said glaring at him and leaning on her hands. "One network locks you out, all of them can."

Then he felt his wall, cutting out invasion by the Gods, fall to pieces and he made a decision.

Everyone watched as a circle of runes appeared around his feet, barely glowing, and then he vanished from the room.

Kasumi released the bandages around her chest with a clear breath of relief and then reclosed her tunic for modesty. Then she looked over toward one of the Gods still choking on her poison and sighed sadly at the waste before turning to the four still living people in the room with her.

"Shall we see about those other prisoners now?" she asked in a calm, friendly tone.


	45. The Sun Also Rises

A massive paper creature that looked like it was supposed to be a mix between King Kong and Cthulhu exploded outward into its component pieces swirling about in the air to the confusion of the pilots in the two Mantles that it had been holding off to that point.

Elsewhere a paper serpent likewise exploded into swirling paper as the Gods facing it paused in their retreat.

Kiima and her warriors watched the other of the massive paper kaiju exploding outward, save the phoenix and dragon that were giving her warriors support in the air. Pausing in mid air during a quiet period, Kiima flapped her wings and glanced down to see what the human was doing with her papers.

"Stay well above the ground," she called out. "Stay focused on their flyers and show why the Phoenix rules the air!"

Down below, Yomiko Readman was standing at the center of a swirling storm of papers slightly behind Ranma Satomi who was calmly radiating a portion of her chi as if preparing to enter battle.

"Okay, Yomiko," Ranma said. "Looks good, you ready for this?"

"After they start burning you won't have long before I have to drop them," the woman said.

"Right," Ranma noted. "That's what the factory is for, do it."

She glanced back toward the other fang shui shih and nodded toward them encouragingly. Demons were already supposed to be taking them out of the fight area, but that clearly wasn't happening.

"Get ready and take cover," she said. "Yomiko you know what to do while stuff is going boom, right?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Yomiko said.

Ahead of her, Yomiko had directed her paper through the various fires in the area, producing a growing, massive firestorm.

"You want fire, mortal!" someone shouted from outside them. "We'll give you fire!"

The swirling flames sped up into swirls of ever increasing speeds as the various fire related deities beyond tried to turn what they saw as a defensive weapon back on the humans they were trying to reach.

"That's right," Ranma said with a smirk as she started walking in a tightening circle as if viewing the strings of fire that were streaming her way. "Give it to me, all that power."

There were a number of people that could have said that what made Ranma dangerous wasn't the raw level of power at the martial artist's beck and call. That was impressive, but it wasn't the most dangerous thing.

The most dangerous thing about Ranma was control. When she'd had the merest fraction of the power she now had, she'd beaten Herb, who'd towered over the human in terms of raw power.

As the multiple fingers of twisting fire, lighting and wind cut in through the air to target what was clearly taken to be the main power behind things in the area, Ranma twisted into a final turn and met the first of the attacks.

"Hiryu Hyo Toppa..." she said, "...amaguriken."

The first tongue of fire was obliterated as Ranma used a fraction of her strength to turn all the mana put into the attack backwards into a narrow twisting blast of spear thick wind. It had barely progressed a few feet when a lightning bolt was similarly consumed and then another tongue of fire.

The tornado spears flashed backwards, tearing into the ground and through buildings outward as Ranma turned all the energy directed at her people backwards on her attackers.

With minimal expenditure of her own chi.

Glancing down, the Gods in the air stared in shock as the devastation surged outwards in a wave of devastation that tossed mantles and Gods about like little dolls.

The distraction cost them as the Phoenix warriors came down out of the sky on top of them in the midst of their distraction. To that point, the battle had been more or less even between the Phoenix and the Gods with casualties and injuries on both sides. However, now they took their chance to attack all at once and clear the skies once and for all. The paper beasts shattering into thousands of projectiles to aid them.

Down on the ground Ranma stood forward and looked out at the devastation and noted a number of Gods climbing back up to their feet and even a last set of Mantles coming forward over the suddenly obliterated landscape.

"Take her in hand to hand," someone shouted as they charged over the gray and dusty ground. "Don't give her any power to use!"

Despite the destruction, Ranma had wrought, there were still many that had survived or else were just now coming into the area from outside the reach of her attack. She stared calmly and watched them calm, arching an eyebrow.

The lead elements were with twenty feet when the ground for a thousand feet out from Ranma and Yomiko spiked upwards through Gods and Mantles.

"I'm afraid none of you have an appointment," Yomiko said.

And then the spikes dissipated into a swirl of slicing, paper objects, as if the Gods had just walked into the puree function of a massive blender.

Then the first Demon appeared.

"We here, let's..." the Demon looked about at the devastation, "...hurry? What happened here?"

* * *

"Director Satomi's secretary reports their position clear," a tech told Mardukas.

"Clear?" Mardukas said, noting that the report had come by radio rather than butterfly. "What is the count there?"

"Readman is reporting now sir," the tech said, clicking the radio to speaker.

"I think I personally disabled or destroyed twelve of those Mantles," she noted. "The Phoenix People can account for another four for sure, two possible, and Director Satomi I believe took eight, maybe nine. It is hard to tell, I didn't have an accurate count before they were in pieces. Rough estimate is between a thousand and two thousand enemy soldiers. Most dead, Kiima's people and the evac team are checking for survivors now."

"And on your end?" Mardukas asked.

"It's serious, sir," Yomiko said. "I estimate the Phoenix have suffered at least thirty percent casualties serious enough to pull them out of the fight. I'm not sure how many of that are dead or probably will die. They kept the skies clear for us, sir, filled all the gaps."

She sounded more than a little horrified at the high numbers underneath her calm frame of speech.

"Understood," Mardukas said. "We're sending a hospital and garrison to you, Readman, so only send the most serious cases out for now."

"Right, sir," Yomiko said. "Might I ask where Captain Testarossa is?"

* * *

"Most of the Asgardians are recovered or recovering," a Japanese general said. "Ainur and Nifelheim are a bit slower to recover, but it's happening."

"We got a report in about that," General Hammond said. "Some sort of psychic attack on the Networks."

His Japanese counterpart nodded sagely.

"This Captain Testarossa's recommendation not to depend too heavily on these Immortals proved wise," he said. "A full unit of Immortals would have been cut down. As it is, we've lost people and machines, and a little bit of momentum, but we're still advancing in some places, holding in most."

"We're expecting Captain Testarossa to join us here soon," General Hammond said.

"One of my aides did report that it seemed a secretary had showed up," the Japanese general noted.

General Hammond resisted the urge to smirk.

"You might want to let that 'secretary' on in," he said.

It was a few minutes later when a lavender haired girl strode in gracefully with a tired, frustrated look on her face.

"Captain," Hammond said, smiling. "It's good to meet you at last. I thought you'd be commanding the DaDanaan."

"Thank you, General," she said, taking his hand and shaking before bowing to the Japanese general. "General. Yes, I left it in my XOs hand's in case I had a relapse."

She walked to the situation map and frowned. It was taking too long to relieve the advance teams. And once the Immortals were incapacitated, it became a matter of an average of eight to nine tanks or five ASes to take out each of the Mantles. And there were still at least ninety still operational, and probably twenty or thirty unaccounted for.

"I received word that we had a radio report to the DaDanaan," she said.

"Time to send air support," Hammond noted.

_Naiki, the air force is coming,_ Tessa said.

_I've got this, send them somewhere else,_ Naiki responded with a bit of effort.

_Do not be stupid,_ Tessa reminded her quickly. _We've already had enough of that with you..._

_I'm not being stupid!_ Naiki returned. _This bitch has her people all mixed up with the soldiers here! All air support is going to do is shoot all of us up!_

Tessa frowned and looked up toward the map again and tapped the location Naiki was.

"There's a skirmish here," she said. "Our people mixed with theirs, send a couple of choppers with snipers out, here and here."

"And how can you be sure of that?" the Japanese general asked.

"Because I share thoughts with one of the people in it," Tessa said.

* * *

Naiki ducked under the sword and kicked upward as she rose up from the crouch, falling back so as to trap the weapon arm uselessly underneath her. Her opponent, however, recognized the ploy and immediately flapped up into the air over the kick and coming about behind Naiki as the Demoness caught herself on one hand and flipped back to standing.

Similar fights were going on all around the two, human soldiers versus Gods. Asgard forged weapons and high-powered automatic weapons competing against quick dives for cover and glowing mana-charged battle auras.

"What the hell is any Goddess, Demoness or any 'ess' doing working for someone like Zeus?" Naiki asked idly as she stomped her feet and unbalanced a damaged wall to collapse down atop her flying enemy.

"He is my father, Demon," Nike noted quickly clipping out from under the falling debris easily and zipping in with a twisting run of her sword. "I doubt such as you would understand."

_We're sending snipers,_ Tessa told Naiki.

_Got it,_ Naiki said with a nod.

"Really, so the way you honor your mother," Naiki said. "Is to serve her rapist. That's just twisted."

Nike swore angrily and smashed out with the hilt of her blade as she sidestepped around a slashing vacuum blade passing within inches of her. The godly weapon struck Naiki in the face pushing her aside and putting her off balance for just a moment as the next wing swiped in, sharp feathers slashing across Naiki's soldier.

"You know nothing of my father!" Nike shouted. "Were you there when the Titans went insane and he stopped them? You have no idea how powerful he is!"

Red pishogue poured out of Naiki in a raw burst as she stood up, forcing the winged Goddess away and giving the Demoness enough of a breather to recover herself.

"So what, you serve him 'cause you're afraid or something?" the sea Demoness demanded. "When he no longer needs you, you know what comes next don't you? And are you going to give that victory to him too?"

She lashed her hand out remembering the trick she'd seen Ryuu pull in the match against her mother. The pishogue vacuum blade formed into her hand and took the shaky appearance of a sword as she swung to match against Nike's only to have the God sword cut cleanly through the vacuum blade which burst into a display of raw power, forcing both fighters back.

"What's your victory? Nike!" the Demoness shouted as she tumbled back

Hopping back to her feet, Naiki lashed out her hands again, sending vacuum blades against her opponent who dodged aside easily and slashed in with her sword swiping out at the one who shared her name and screaming out loud, wind blow her forward.

"Is Zeus winning really your victory?" Naiki demanded.

Naiki smirked and dodged backwards nimbly, hands extended outward and chanting at the top of her lungs fast enough that Nike, who wasn't paying much attention anyway, missed much of the phrasing.

And then the winged Goddess's charge was cut short as something grabbed about her foot and slammed her down into ground.

"Want to see what I've learned from a friend?" Naiki asked as two more brown tentacles grew out of the ground around Nike and tried to pull her down.

"You base cretin!" Nike shouted as mana poured out from her, slicing through the trio of tentacles holding her.

Naiki winced as she felt the backlash of the tentacles destruction and then had to brace herself for Nike's attack.

The woman's wings flared out and then launched forward, unleashing a hail of razor sharp feathers directed at Naiki.

"Ohh! Wrong move!" Naiki shouted as she reached outward and bent her hand aside.

"Violent!"

The feathers bent aside and curled around Naiki.

"Tumultous!"

The feathers twisted about behind and around her, coming back along one side.

"Overwhelming!"

Nike watched with mouth open wide as her own feathers slashed in toward her.

"Flow!"

Barely raising a shield of mana up, the feathers cracked hard against Nike's shield one after another followed by Naiki herself slamming down hard with a gate smashing entry assault leading the way.

The mana cracked underneath her and Nike was slammed backwards cartwheeling over the ground back into one of the damaged buildings. Naiki was already charging forward as the Goddess pushed herself up using the sword.

And then lurched to the side suddenly, feeling at the side of her skull where the bullet had glanced off the side of her head. Quickly an aura of blue mana rose back up to shield her as her wings spread out and she flew back up into the sky ahead of Naiki's attack.

"Assassins!" Nike shouted as more bullets cracked into her shield.

_What happened?_ Tessa asked.

_The first bullet was a glancing shot,_ Naiki said. _Tell 'em to back up everybody else, I got my namesake._

_She's Goddess of Victory, Naiki,_ Tessa warned. _It's going to take more than just brute force._

_And that's why I'm 'borrowing' you,_ the Demoness noted. _By the way, do you ALWAYS think like this? It's sooo...categorized._

_Discuss later,_ Tessa snapped. _Focus on what you're doing._

Naiki nodded and leaped up onto the side of one of the remaining buildings in the area and pushed herself upwards into the air before bursting into smoke and reappearing right behind Nike.

"I'll not be taken by..." Nike stopped as she was grabbed from behind.

"You're in the air," Naiki said simply. "My family owns the air."

And then the Demoness hurled herself about, dragging Nike along with her into a flat dive straight down into the ground, the Goddess leading. Naiki almost winced at the cracking sound as the other woman's wings snapped on impact, but was immediately slamming several hundred pishogue empowered fists into Nike's abdomen before the other could respond.

Weakly, Nike was still trying to struggle out from under Naiki as the Demoness straddled over her and pushed one hand over the stunned Goddess's heart before funneling pishogue down the arm and over the Winged Goddess, watching as the binding was laid in and Nike's mana fizzled away.

"Noooo!" Nike shouted. "I'm the Goddess of Victory! I can't be defeated in open combat! There's no way...!"

"How about if you don't really want the victory," Naiki asked, leaning back onto her rump and Nike's stomach.

Nike stared up at her in shock, pondering what the Demoness just said.

_Okay,_ she told Tessa. _One captured enemy general and I think I'll stop borrowing you for the moment, Tessa. Thinking like that is tiring._

As Naiki stood up and hauled Nike to her feet, she watched as the skirmish came under control, the surrounding snipers supporting the various other soldiers in the area.

"Hey, sir," Naiki called out to the US marine that commanded the unit she was part of. "I'm taking the lady back to answer questions and get a check up with my sister or some other doctor type. Okay?"

"Make it quick, we need to get moving quickly to be on objective," he said.

She gave a thumbs up and teleported away, leaving Nike with some security and medics before returning.

_I'd like to note, Naiki,_ Tessa commented. _That you were just straddling a highly attractive, angelic blonde warrior and made not one sexual advance, inappropriate or otherwise. I think you might actually be maturing._

_Yeah, well, groping while talking about Zeus seemed...ewwww_ Naiki responded.

"Hey, Demon girl, what were those tentacle things you did?" one of the marines moving along side her asked then. "I thought you did smoke or something?"

"Smoke is my boss," Naiki said. "The tentacles come from this short pettanko girl who kinda has a thing for me."

"Are you saying your girlfriend is a tentacle monster?" the marine asked. "That must get fun cuddling."

"No sex until I'm eighteen, parental decree," Naiki muttered. She was silent for a moment before continuing. "What do tentacles have to do with cuddling anyway?"

"Really, seriously? I thought all you Asian girls were into that kinky stuff," the Marine said. "And you're a Demon, how can you not know?"

"Know what?" Naiki asked.

The marine looked around cautiously before pausing to reach into one of many pockets.

"Look, we're not supposed to have this stuff out here, so don't let anybody see it," he noted retrieving a small pocket manga and handing it over to Naiki.

"What, a manga?" the Demoness said. "What is going to be in...oh. Oh. OH! Oh! Wow. Oh Wow! Uhhh...Oh! must not sq...SQUEEEEEE WOW!"

At that point the officer came over and snatched the book out of Naiki's hands and shoved it back into the marines, point forward.

"Stop perverting the teenager and get moving, Jenkins," the officer said.

* * *

Hammond watched as Tessa quite graceful raised a hand to her face and placed it there in a clear expression of combined frustration and patience.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"One of the marines just introduced a concept to Naiki that I could have gone the rest of my life without being exposed to quite happily," Tessa noted.

"Do I want to know?" the American general asked with a smirk.

"Oh God, no," Tessa said.

"If we might continue with the battle?" the Japanese general noted. "We seem to be making progress."

* * *

Deimosu dived aside of Cu Cuchlain's spear, rolling underneath it. The warrior God reacted quickly, however, swinging the spear's butt around to smash the Ainur aside.

The young Satomi wasn't worried about the blunt end of the spear, but he'd heard stories about what would happen to someone stabbed by that particular point.

Rolling up to his feet and stepping back, Deimosu stepped aside of the slashing blade and called out with his own power to slam down into Cu Cuchlain from above.

As the Celtic warrior lifted his arm out to craft an aura of mana against the chi-filled lightning, Deimosu took advantage of the man's focus upward to push raw chi into a blast of pure, white energy. Chi was neither the most stable nor the most powerful of the life-forces, but it was the most adaptable and the quickest.

And Cu Cuchlain had a severe disadvantage.

He was locked out of many of the benefits of Yggdrasil.

However, Deimosu had Silmaril's support.

Cu Cuchlain was trying to extend his battle-aura as the chi blast rushed out at him, but he was slow to shift the mana from one direction to another. He flew backwards, still keeping tight hold of his spear.

Deimosu was charging forward as Cu Cuchlain pushed himself up to his feet with a semi-crazed smile.

He swung his spear about, forcing Deimosu to dodge upwards and then roll black flat as the butt of the spear came around, which left the Ainur in position for the God to kick upward into Deimosu's back throwing him into the sky with a grunt.

Swinging out with the point of his spear again, he was mildly surprised when Deimosu threw his weight aside and out of the way of the incoming blade.

"Kachu tenshin amaguriken!" Deimosu shouted, slamming his fist into Cu Cuchlain's side and drawing a clear wince from the spearman.

Stepping aside, the Celtic God clutched the battered side as he put his spear between him and Deimosu.

"Hmm," he said. "Right now you're stronger than me and faster than me. Things look desperate for me, don't they,"

"Then just give up and let's not deal with this anymore," Deimosu said sharply as he stepped in, moving cautiously this time.

"I already told you," Cu Cuchlain said. "I'm not going to be satisfied until someone can beat me into the ground."

He charged forward, stabbing out with the masterful skill of thousands of years of practice, which Deimosu was only barely able to duck around. As the butt came around again then, however, he caught the butt end and immediately let loose his power again.

The shaft of the spear crackled with the lightning pouring out of his hand, scoring black marks throughout the crafted spear until it finally shattered in his hand.

Cu Cuchulain glanced down at the splintered remains of his spear with something akin to shock before Deimosu stepped in and started beating him about the head and body until he was thrown back to land on his rear against a wall.

"We're done," Deimosu said.

"Of course," the disarmed spearwielder said. "Because you say so, right?"

Behind him, the Carapace was starting to reactivate and the rebel Gods were fleeing as the Demon with in the vehicle apparently recovered.

"That's right," Deimosu said. "Because I say so."

"So much like your father," the Celtic God said with a smirk.

Almost immediately, Deimosu's hand was about his throat and the God was being lifted up and pushed through one wall and into the next.

"What did you say?" the blonde Ainur demanded.

"You're just like your father," Cu Cuchlain said with a little smirk. "Everything is because you say so, there's no thought but the fact that you say something is true therefore it has to be true."

"I'm nothing like that," Deimosu said angrily. "I set limits on myself unlike that...thing."

"Right," Cu Cuchlain said, not disturbed in the slightest. "_You_ set limits on yourself, nobody else. And as soon as you decide what must be done, you do it, without asking _because you say so._"

"Quiet!" Deimosu shouted. "I haven't done anything like that."

"Look around you Son of Zeus," Cu Cuchlain said with a smile. "Where would you say this whole mess came from? We're at war."

And behind Deimosu, the piecces Gae Bolg rose up and came together as it pointed towards Deimosu's back.

"Because. You. Said. So."

Deimosu stared ahead blankly as if in shock for just a moment, and in that moment, the spear behind him launched itself forward...

...and found itself stopped cold by thin pile of papers floating in air.

Cu Cuchlain stared in disbelief, wondering what was going on as two women came into view, one of whom picked up his spear and almost casually broke the link between him and the weapon.

"Thank, Yomiko," Ranma said casually.

"It is not a problem Ma'am," she said proudly as Ranma moved forward.

The red head leaned the spear against her shoulder casually, almost disrespectfully as she walked forward.

"Deimosu, are you all right?" she asked in concern.

Slowly, her son nodded and then quickly shook his head, trying to hide his shock too late.

"Okay, step aside a bit here," Ranma said casually, waiting for her son to slowly back away from Cu Cuchlain.

"So, you're the mother?" the Celtic God asked weakly as she came to stand in front of him,

"You're lucky some people want you alive," Ranma told the man coldly.

"Unlike the rest of you here, I'm seeking a true warrior's death in the midst of battle," the Celtic God said pulling himself to his feet.

"I guess that makes not lucky then," Ranma said, examining the spear. "So, this thing's been broken, repaired and disrupted in the past minute, maybe two. Looks like it's going to take a while to recover completely."

"Guess you won't be able to get much use out of it," Cu Cuchlain noted smirking.

"Just a little bit," Ranma said, stabbing the spear down into the warrior's foot.

Cu Cuchlain winced at the pain and twitched as he could feel the weak, unrecovered remnants of the Gae Bolg's curse working through him already.

"I imagine that hurts," Ranma said.

The God grimaced and shifted weight off the foot as he took Ranma in. The exorcist was already drawing a circle about the ground and focusing power, using the relic as an etching tool.

"That's just spite," the man said irritably, showing a loss of humor for the first time.

"No, that's you being lucky this isn't my house," the red-head noted as she finished the circle and the chi snapped shut. "You get to come back."

And the Celtic God seemed to be pulled into the Gae Bolg, now serving as the link between Earth and the prison Ranma had crafted for him.

The red-head turned to look at her son.

"You let him unsettle you," she said seriously.

"He was…he…" he stopped himself.

Deimosu had to admit that there wasn't anything particularly untrue said in any of what the lancer had said.

"Go see if Eija needs any help," the red-head said in a casual tone that was not to be mistaken as anything but an order.

"Mom…" Deimosu started to say.

"You're distracted and over emotional," Ranma said. "Do I have to say anything more direct?"

"I'll go," the lightning user said reluctantly, leaping back towards the beach.

As her son left to head back to the medical tents, she shook her head and glanced aside toward where Herb was walking her way. Behind him, Basil regarded Ranma cautiously.

"Well, we still have a few thousand walking WMDs and assorted mooks to put down or capture," Ranma said. "So…let's get to it."

* * *

Belldandy took a deep breath as the virus in her system was finally cleared and she sat up on the medical cot that she'd been helped to when the attack first came.

"I don't get it," a wounded soldier said as he watched her sit up. "Aren't you people supposed to be powerful enough to destroy the world? Why are we bothering with this? Why does it even work?"

Belldandy looked over at him.

"I could," Belldandy said quietly. "If I took my time, weave a spell that could wipe Japan clean."

"Then why don..." he stopped mid sentence. "Everything?"

"Everything," Belldandy said sadly. "It would not be the best of spells, such...things are not what I enjoy. Kali could be more precise, but...they are Gods, they would sense the spell coming and interfere. People would die who we sought to protect and most of those who we wished to...stop...would be untouched."

"And how are we succeeding at all?" he asked.

"Because, the networks are divided," she said. "There is too much activity and it is directed inward. And we are dying. It used to be our subconscious was enough to protect ourselves from normal hazards, but the extra processing is...busy. And the individual minds can't focus everywhere at once. It's requiring more and more conscious effort to do things that were automatic."

"So, what you're saying is..." the soldier started to say cautiously.

"Lag kills," Hermes said, entering the room. "Belldandy, I assume you're recovered?"

She nodded.

"They'll be needing me healing, I know," she said.

"Actually, we have some news," the God of Messengers said.

"Skuld?" Belldandy asked hopefully.

"Sayoko Mishima," Hermes said as he shook his head. "Peorth had contact with her."

* * *

Akane felt the energy of the peach fading away just as a God and an Ainur joined up with them.

With a bit of relief, she stepped back from the front lines to catch her breath and take in the situation that she could see from where she was.

The soldiers she'd been supporting hadn't done too poorly, but in places where the human soldiers had been left with minimal or no psychic support, she could already see that the attrition was not quite pyrrhic.

She jumped a little as a hand clapped on her shoulder and whipped about to enter battle until she realized that it was her husband that had just gathered her attention.

"Damn it, Ryuu, don't do that," she said. "I don't want to have to explain to the kids how I killed their father."

"On accident of course," Ryuu said with a smile.

"Right," Akane said irritably before leaning into him and exchanging a quick hug on the battlefield as a jet passed over them. "Thank goodness you're alive."

"I was worried about you too," he said.

* * *

Hammond, Tessa and the other command leaders watched as reports came in and more of the southern island was cleared. Some of the rebel Gods were fleeing, others were hanging on to fight to the dire end. Others were doing something that seemed entirely random.

It all depended on what sort of quirks they had.

"We're winning," Hammond noted obviously. "Probably have the island under control within the next three hours."

"Now we just need to move on to the main island," Tessa said with a sigh.

* * *

Doctor Hasuke glanced over at the Goddess that had been helping throughout the whole attack. She was one of the first to recover from whatever attack had struck the Immortals, even amongst the Gods, who mostly seemed to recover quicker. However, what he saw at the moment was a bit concerning.

"Is someone in immediate danger?" the girl asked, turning to look at what seemed to be empty air. "Then I can't help you right now."

She turned away from the empty air a moment and went back to moving through the wounded looking for the injuries that required the most immediate attention.

"I'm trying to keep more people from dying right now," she said wearily over her shoulder. "I shall try to help the already dead after that. In the meantime, all of you might find ways to make yourselves useful and see if you can find ways to direct people to the wounded. There is plenty of energy in the air to make use of."

Satomi didn't slow down as she settled on a man who looked fine.

"Internal, bleeding here," she said quickly. "I'll stabilize him."

"Miss Satomi," the doctor said, moving over to the girl's side. "Perhaps you should lie down again."

Eija looked up, eyes red out to the visible edges of the sphere.

"No, I am fine," she said sighing. "I'm not that tired yet."

"You were just talking to thin air," the man noted for a moment.

"Hmmm, oh," Eija noted. "That was a ghost."

"A ghost?" the man said. "Of course. We have Gods and Demons, why not ghosts. How many ghosts are around?"

"Too many," Eija said quietly. "Way too many."

_How are things going?_ Kaname asked.

_I think things are slowing down,_ Eija said. _We seem to be winning._

_That is good,_ a faint but strengthening sound trickled to their minds.

Kaname and Eija both paused in thought though Eija didn't let the mild surprise distract her from her medical duties.

_Sousuke?_ was asked simultaneously with _Sousuke-kun?_

_Affirmative_ the mercenary said. _Apparently, I'm now a part of this link._

_One moment please._ Eija said, putting away her worry of this event as she regarded something going on around her.

Making sure to leave one hand on the patient, she stood up and looked around, putting herself protectively before the patients as a collection of men in the guise of civilians broke in to the tent brandishing firearms.

_So...we're...all three connected now,_ Kaname said nervously.

"You are our captives and now you will cease to provide aid and comfort to the enemies of hea..." the man was interrupted as Eija turned to look calmly away from them.

_Should that bother us?_ Sousuke asked. _The conversion was supposed to prevent this._

"If you'd please, I seem to be busy," Eija told a many-braided brunette girl off to the side.

Bullets tore out of the guns directed at them as a blue field extended outward from Eija and blocked the shots. Really, Eija noted, bullets and without distraction first.

_Mara, could you answer me a question,_ Kaname asked nervously, Eija and Sousuke hearing her thoughts as they were connected to the statement.

"That," Lusca said stepping forward with a frown, "is not funny."

Tentacles erupted out of the ground and nearly any other nearby surface as the girl walked forward. On tentacle darted in from outside the tent and pulled one of the terrorists out screaming as others lashed out to grab guns and bad guys, pulling them down to ground.

_Okay, I'm clear again._

_What occurred?_ Sousuke asked.

_A handful of human cultists got into the medical area,_ Eija said. _Lusca is handling them._

Some of the tentacles seemed to be trying to pull their targets into the ground, but finding it difficult to impossible.

A wall of the summoned things ripped up between the school girl and the cultists as she pushed them out of the area and away from the injured.

_Okay, Uh, Mara said the part of us that's linked can be broken into...or we can let people into...which is what she thinks happened,_ Kaname said with clear relief. _She suggests we get our marks checked for damage, but doesn't think it will be a problem._

Eija and Dr. Hasuke watched as two of the men, the lower half of their faces covered by a turn of the tendrils, tried to fight being pulled out of the tent as Lusca left. The men left huge furrows and traces of blood as fingernails cracked in the attempt not to be pulled out into the outside.

"Why isn't she in the fight?" the doctor asked turning back to the patient as the crisis passed.

"All the category three Demons are performing support roles," Eija said, retuning all her focus on the man whose life they were trying to save. "And she's Demoness of Crushing. So..."

"Yes, I know, she's been 'applying pressure'," the doctor said. "And that display explains some of the 'bandages' I've been seeing recently."

Eija stopped and thought about that statement.

"She makes tentacle bandages?" she asked.

_Is there anything that girl doesn't answer with tentacles?_

_Isn't Lusca category two at least?_ Sousuke asked.

_Yes, but she's supposed to be limited right now,_ Eija said. _A partial binding due to her current mental state. Enough to defend herself with._

_Are you sure she's actually limited?_ Kaname asked.

* * *

"The battle line's been pushed ten miles from here," a soldier explained to his friend. "We're guarding a bunch of civies and back rank people. There's nothing going on back here, so don't sweat it."

"Did I hear you right soldier," an angry voice came from behind the two. "Are you going to slack off on guard duty."

The two soldiers straightened up immediately as the sergeant stepped forward into view, but not to the degree that they would around an officer.

"Ah, come on Sarge, everything's finished here," the laid back soldier said.

"Have you not heard the reports of enemy agents, cultists or crap like that, filtering into the civilian population?" the sergeant demanded.

"Oh please, what's the chance that any of those are going to be around here."

A brown tentacle rippled out of the wall on one side behind the three and passed into the damaged wall across from it. All three turned to look at the reptilian, brown mass phasing through the two walls until it started pulling back rapidly.

With the sound of a high pitched scream, the damaged brick wall exploded into debris as a man in civilian clothes and dropping what looked like a second hand AK-47 as he slammed into the next, very solid wall.

The tentacle wrapped man continued clawing at his captor and screaming as the vaguely frustrated appendage had troubles getting the man to phase through the wall.

"Awww, why don't the people go through the walls too?" a girl's voice asked with an annoyed pout.

The soldiers looked over to see a teenager standing there surrounded by struggling and flailing men trying to scream out. Another tentacle grew out of the ground at her feet and whipped out to grab the man who wouldn't go through the wall, provoking a brief tug of war between the two tentacles.

"Wait, wait," Lusca said, forcibly making herself dismiss the other tentacle so that the last of the men hurtled his way towards her. "And now to save you guys for later."

All around her, save the patch immediately underneath her, it seemed as if the ground opened up to darkness and a writhing mass of tentacles ripped up out of the darkness to grab the girl's collected prisoners down into the hole.

At which point the hole vanished away, leaving behind a little plushie octopus which the girl picked up and skipped over to the three witnessing soldiers.

"Here you go! Prisoners!" she said cheerfully.

"Thanks, kid," the sergeant said, at least trying to seem non-pulsed.

"I'm going back to helping Naiki's sister! Bye!"

She waved happily before popping into smoke and vanishing from in front of them.

"Di...did a school girl just give me a plushie gate to tentacle hell?" the formerly laid back soldier asked.

"See that, soldier, the civilians are doing your job for you," the sergeant snapped at them. "Now get that plushie to a command staff."

* * *

Kasumi peeked around the corner and looked to see a pair of guards down the hall, apparently they hadn't heard any cause for alarm yet. She frowned at that. She had brought the wine and glasses with her, but hadn't expected that she would be able to use them.

"Shouldn't Zeus have alerted someone by now?" she asked quietly.

"That depends on whether or not he's given this up as a lost cause or not," Melinoe said, leaning against a wall. "If he has, I doubt he cares much what happens here."

The wife of Tofu Ono turned toward the side and saw her charges in varying states of a lack of health. The one in the best condition was actually Nodoka, who was still wincing every few moments.

"Wait a moment please," Kasumi said calmly, checking her servant's uniform again.

She was starting to turn around the corner, a mild look on her face, when the building shook about as if in some sort of Earthquake. She toppled to her knees and the poisoned wine went splattering across the floor as the bottle shattered.

"What was that!" one of the guards demanded.

"That felt like it just might be action," the other said eagerly.

And then he was off running past Kasumi, pushing her aside into the wall negligently.

"Wait, you idiot!" the first guard shouted, moving after his friend a moment later. "We're supposed to stay here and gu..."

He was interrupted after his partner twisted around the corner and then stopped with a sharp pained sound a moment before Nodoka stumbled her way forward, sword leading where it was stabbed through the guard's stomach, until she pushed the surprised God to the wall.

She was thrown aside almost immediately, the hilt of her sword breaking off in her hands as it left the blade in the God's abdomen.

"What in Zeus's name!" the guard said, moving forward at about the same time that his friend was pulling the blade out of his stomach.

"There's more!" the injured guard snapped, lifting a hand and reaching it out toward Nodoka.

Whatever was going to happen was interrupted as Kasumi came up behind him, passing the first guard and desperately pulled her tunic down over the guard's head, leaving herself dressed in bandages.

The so-far untouched guard turned to look around the corner and found Melinoe's fist slamming into his face and sending his head back with a surprised blink, dropping his keys as he did so. Almost immediately he kicked out into the Goddess, staving in her belly and knocking the wind out of her.

Leaping over Melinoe came a reptilian form of scales and fangs and claws leaping onto the God and biting hard into his shoulder, as lines were raked along his arm.

The God which Meryl was clinging to grimaced angrily, his hardened skin not allowing her much damage, and took a deep breath before shouting out with a resounding roar that sent her hurtling down the hallway to slam into a doorframe. Almost squeaking at the impact, she shifted back into her normal form, groaning as she slid down to the ground, stunned.

Kasumi found herself being shaken about like one of those rodeo bull riders that she'd seen in the occasional Western movie, with Nodoka trying to stand up again to help. She slammed into the wall painfully a couple times and could only barely keep out of its way the third time, and that only by losing her grip and sprawling back to the floor.

In the meantime, Sayoko dodged around the fight and sprinted for the door holding the other women prisoner, snatching up the keys and running for the door, fumbling to open it. She succeeded just as the roar echoed through the halls.

And the first two out were the cop and the air force officer, who had so far been overlooked by Zeus in favor of other, softer beauties.

Both ran forward at a run, the air force officer bending down to pick up the discarded shard of Nodoka's sword as she reached the one that had already been stabbed once.

She stabbed the sword blade upward into the God's armpit and then jerked him downward, bring the shattered, blunt end down into her rising knee and stabbing it up through his resilent skin and destroying the use of that arm.

The cop meanwhile grabbed the other distracted God's arm and kicked out into the back of his knee, bringing him down hard into the ground and twisting his arm tight against his back, trying to pin him down.

"Give me a weapon!" she shouted.

The air force officer was surprised when her opponent didn't immediately fall down dying but simply pulled the blade out of his arm pit and the bleeding slowly came to a stop.

"Damn it," the air force officer grimaced.

The God, now down to one useful arm twisted into a skilled kick which the air force officer barely ducked under. And then the next foot snapped out into her chin, clipping it, and she was tossed back, stumbling to keep her feet and bleeding from where she'd just bitten into her tongue.

A burst of blue energy from the other God through the police woman back into a wall hard. The guard was already standing up as Melinoe stepped forward, staggering and still trying to catch her breath, but focusing mana past the pain of her damaged connection to Yggdrasil and slamming all the power she could gather into a raw blast of energy.

The guard, raised a wall of chi easily enough and Melinoe's attack pretty much shattered with an accompanying cry of pain as the skin of her marks cracked and bled freely.

He idly kicked out his foot at her head when another blast of mana unsteadied him from behind.

"Get away from my aunt!" Nyx shouted angrily, her own marks bleeding from the damage inflicted on her.

The guard smirked and stepped forward batting away Nyx's raw blasts of mana and stepping into the area around her as it filled with darkness so thick he couldn't see and even the light of mana flashes was swallowed.

A loud burst of sound erupted from the darkness and it flew backwards, pulled along by it's source, and vanished entirely as Nyx's head slammed into the top of the doorframe and cartwheeled her to the ground.

Smirking the guard turned around to find the cop slashing a knife hand up into his throat and then slamming his face down into her knee and, while that knee was still in the air and anchoring against her existing momentum, slammed her foot up in between his legs.

The one-armed God meanwhile reached out with his arm, gathering mana as the air force officer got back to her feet and tried to rush back into the fight, a grim smile on his face.

He was disrupted again by Nodoka slamming the shard of blade still connected to her hilt up into his chest. It was only another minor injury, but it gave the American woman time to reach the God and grab hold of his disabled arm and twisting in a direction that design had not intended the arm to go.

"Do you really think this is going to be enough, mortals?" he demanded angrily.

Which was when claws loaded with as much pishogue as Meryl could manage slashed through his throat once and then again.

Another preternatural roar, of a distinctly higher pitch, and the cop found herself flattened so hard against the stone wall behind her that it cracked and she could feel her back bruising up all read and wondered if anything more serious might have been done.

Before he could take advantage of the moment however, the air force officer was behind him and twisting his head about in a sharply disturbing fashion...that almost managed to outright break his neck.

An arm smacked out against her and the air force officer found herself slammed into the wall.

"I'm tougher than that, mortal!" he shouted. "And you will pay for this...what is..." his eyes began to go black and he shook his head about. "Hecate's spawn!"

He twisted his head toward where she had fallen and was taking a breath again.

And Kasumi stuffed her tunic into his mouth and he pulled it down, choking.

Before the guard could reach up to pull the cloth out, the cop and air force officer each stepped forward and grabbed a limb, twisting it into submission holds away from that necessary connection to the vital air that all life needed.

It wasn't long before the God ceased to move and the collected women took several breaths.

"Everybody all right?" the cop asked weakly, trying to stand straight.

Meryl, Nyx and Melinoe all three were clutching at their heads, only Sayoko of the four not having aggravated the injuries Zeus had left them with.

"I feel just a little bit better, actually," Nodoka said tightly as she leaned against the wall.

"We should hurry," Kasumi said, gesturing to the remaining women, who had not gotten into the fight. "Someone is going to have heard that."

The women who were having difficulty holding themselves off were paired off to someone to support them, a process taking less than a minute, and they were set to move down the hall back to the surface, when guards did indeed appear ahead of them.

Gods and human worshipers both, there were four more of the renegade Immortals and twenty or thirty anger looking fanatics.

"These are the murderers of the Gods," one of the Immortals said to the despairing women.

The groups came down separate hallways, set to meet in the intersection where the fight had happened.

Guns were being raised and safeties taken off as the Gods sat back with glowers, ready to watch the mortals do their dirty work.

Kasumi and the others gathered themselves up to stand up straight and dignified. The housewife straightened herself and found her center, banishing the worry as she took on that same serene look on her face that she had held when she looked down at Zeus.

The same she held on any given day.

The sound of gunshots was proceeded by a raucous explosion and cloud of dust.

"The hell?" the cop asked, not quite believing she hadn't been shot at all.

Ahead of them, the dust cleared away revealing an unfurled bamboo umbrella in the hands of a massive Japanese man dressed all in yellow traveling clothes. Above him an almost perfect hole in the ceiling showed.

"I can't allow you to harm these women," Ryouga said with a growling tone as his free hand reached for his bandanna. "I can't allow it!"

The arm holding the umbrella swung back as his other hand slashed forward, unleashing a torrent of glowing yellow and black projectiles that tore into the mortals even as the Gods mostly dodged out of the way.

A massive white glow suffused the hallway, pouring out from Ryouga as the Gods tried to unleash their individual power against him and then the umbrella was thrust forward down another hallway, mowing through the opponents there like reaper in the wheat.

His hands free, he reached out toward either side of him and jabbed his fingers into the stone walls.

"Bakusei Tenketsu Wave!" he shouted.

The stone exploded around him, one explosion carrying with it chi-enthused debris which struck further breaking points and onward and onward. A roaring continuation of explosions and shattering rock that carried upward and shook the entire building which had stood for hundreds of years.

And, as things began to quiet down, the umbrella swung back around through the newly sunlit air and landing in Ryouga's hand easily.

The dust settled showing a slope of rock and gravel leading up out of the basement of the palace into the sky above and Ryouga turned back to look at the women he had just protected, all but Kasumi staring at him in raw shock.

"Kasumi?" Ryouga said. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out of Japan?"

"I didn't quite make it," Kasumi said with a sigh and a relieved smile.

"The only problem is," the air force officer noted. "There's no way we're sneaking out of this."

A burst of smoke beside them revealed three new people.

"Perhaps," Moloch said calmly. "We can help with that. Get close together. We're not sure how well this will work with so many."

Beside the Demon, Seina and Issei both moved out and started verbally running through a swift string of numbers until circular swaths of energy rippled out from each of them, bending space in their area, and they were gone as the remaining Gods in the area came upon the area.

* * *

Chihiro watched as the explosions in the distance drew away the Gods and mantle that were watching the Norns' temple and darted her way inside.

"That looked like it came from the Palace," Otaki said in near shock.

"Shhh," Chihiro said. "Don't attract attention, someone might still be here."

That said, she darted across the street, the huge forms of her two old friends behind her. They got into the building easily enough and then ducked undercover.

And instantly, Chihiro was heading for the phone.

"We're here to make a phone call?" Tamiya asked. "Couldn't we have done that anywhere?"

"Not really," Chihiro said.

She reached into the back of her mind to remember how Belldandy had explained the phone could be used to connect to Asgard. Before, she probably still could have done it, being something of a genius, but it would have taken her a lot longer and there wasn't a guarantee she'd get it right even with the instructions.

A pure mathematical genius such as Yaku would have had no trouble, but still.

For the moment, however, Chihiro didn't have to act entirely alone and she dialed through the long batch of numbers.

"This is the Earth Assistance Office," a voice said in a calm tone that nevertheless showed a trace of frazzled nerves. "Oh may I help you."

"This is Chihrio Fujimi, Ainur, in Tokyo, Nekomi," she said.

"Excuse me a moment," the voice said, and it was a short time before a familiar voice was on the other end.

"Miss Fujimi, this is Peorth," the woman said. "It is good to hear from you, Belldandy will be happy to hear you are well, we were worried."

"Yeah," Chihiro said. "I kinda got stuck here somehow."

"There was a dimensional wall of some sort," Peorth explained. "You should be fine to leave now."

"I assume you know how to find one of the evacuation zones?" the rose goddess asked.

"I was actually hoping you'd take these guys off my hands," she said.

"What?" Otaki asked.

"Boss!" Tamiya said. "How can you say that, you think we'll just leave you here."

"Look, I'm sure someone is here doing something, especially based on that big boom just a little bit ago," Chihiro said into the phone and two her subordinates simultaneously. "A engineer can't but be useful to them, especially an Ainur engineer. Besides I think there's something else I can do here to help things out."

"I can have someone come and pick them up, but wouldn't it be possible just to take them out yourself and go back when you have a location on a place to meet people?" Peorth asked over the phone.

"You know just as well as I do that the second I show up in an evacuation area, they're going to claim civilian and lock me down," Chihiro said.

Peorth made a sound that seemed just the least bit dissatisfied.

"All right, Miss Fujimi," she said. "I'll have someone sent, find some olive oil in Belldandy's kitchen and pour a pool of it somewhere out of sight from outdoors."

"Thanks," Chihiro said with a smile. "I owe you one, lady."

And then she set the phone down before Peorth could answer.

"Tamiya, Otaki," she said. "Go get as much olive oil from the kitchen as possible and pour it on the floor. Go ahead..."

"Olive oil?" Tamiya asked.

"Don't ask me, it's probably the stuff whatever God is coming for us travels through," Chihiro said shrugging. "And as for me, I'm going off to have a word or wrench or two with Banpei."

* * *

Chihiro woke up with a splitting headache and looked around to find herself in Atlantis. She blinked a little bit as her mind called up what had led to this.

She'd been talking to Skuld's robot.

And then everything went painfully black.

Her eyes narrowed sharply.

"YOU IDIOTS! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Tamiya and Otaki winced as Athena sipped her tea outside the next room.

"I'm sure she doesn't mean it," the Goddess said a moment before the door slammed open and the two humans hightailed it best speed away from the glowering form of their Boss. "Or maybe she does."

She smiled slightly as Chihiro strode forward angrily.

"All right, I'll just..."

"I wouldn't do that," Athena noted. "We did...as you say, lock you down. You're worth more on this end than the other. And I believe you planned to do something with that."

Athena pointed across to where Banpei sat in the corner, currently powered down.

"Considering he might just be able to find his creator," Athena said. "While we still can't...I'd say that is useful."

* * *

Skuld worked her hands loose as she listened to Koyla and the men in the next room talking. At least one of the men over there was an exorcist or feng shui shih of some sort. Which might explain why nobody had found her yet.

They planned pretty well for this.

Of course, she did have some options. There was electricity and wiring in here and that gave her something.

More than something.

Quietly, she looked about to see the materials on hand.


	46. Too Many Parties

Mara took a breath as she sat on the examination bench and consented to let herself be examined. She'd been spending a lot of time in the doctor's office recently, she realized.

"If I had to guess," the Scottish accented doctor said. "I'd say you'd been smashed by a truck going at about twenty miles per hour. There are all sorts of burst blood vessels in non-vital areas."

"It's getting common place recently," she said irritably, spitting a bit of saliva mixed with blood into a nearby tray. "How's everybody else doing."

She looked around the room of Demons as well as Kaname and Rodney McKay.

"Internal bleeding?" Rodney said. "Nobody said anything about that! That wasn't on the sales brochure. You're saying that my choice on a psychic attack is let it screw with my mind or taking it on in that place and risk an aneurysm! Or drowning because a vessel in my lungs popped."

"Some are doing better than others," the Doctor said wryly.

"How do you put up with that?" Mara asked.

"I look it as a down payment on any penance I might have to take in the future," came the answer.

"So any Gods or anybody else with healing abilities?" she asked.

"Not yet, you'll all have to deal with this the old fashioned way," Beckett said.

"Technically, one of you Ainur or other Demons that isn't already wiped out psychically could do a skip through the Satomis into Yggdrasil and borrow something," Mara said.

"I don't think I want to risk experimenting with magic on real patients before I've talked to someone about training," the doctor explained.

"Look," McKay said, pointing. "My hand is bruising up."

"Though I suppose I could make an exception for certain patients," the little man said, rolling his eyes.

Mara smirked and stood up, calling out.

"Okay," she said. "We got a bit side-tracked what with Zeus trying to screw over all three networks at once. But since we caught him looking the wrong way, looks like we got past it without much. So, rest and tomorrow...Nidhog again."

"What yuo're going in again tomorrow?" McKay asked. "Don't you need more time to recover?"

"On at least three of your people, I'd agree," the doctor said. "But nobody came out as badly as your records imply for the Meridia battle two weeks ago, Miss Geisthexe."

Mara winced.

"Anyway, save the people on Dr. Beckett's list, rest and get ready for tomorrow," Mara said.

There was some weary nodding and Kaname stepped forward towards the blonde Demoness, a nervous expression on her face.

"Mara can you answer me a question," she asked.

"Okay," Mara said, rubbing her forehead.

"Well, Eija and I can hear and talk to Sousuke after last night," she said. "Should we be worried about merging our minds again?"

Mara froze in mid-motion, color draining from her face as a look of mortification crossed over it.

Nearby, several other of the Demons in the room twisted their head about to look at Kaname, one of the women twittering with a bit of laughter somewhere between embarrassment and amusement. A couple simply stared at Kaname slack-jawed.

"Uhhh..." Mara said, glancing around for support. "Well...no...you see...ummm..."

Pretty much every Demon fled the room at a good place as Shepard came in, cocking an eyebrow.

"What the heck is that about?" McKay asked.

"Uhh, there shouldn't be...a...uh problem," Mara said. "That...uh...wasn't the same sort of...psychic...mixing...but when you...let in Eija and Sousuke...or they let you in or..."

Mara's face was getting redder as she talked and flitted to looking about the room at the Ainur around her.

"umm...actual telepathic conversation is...uh...strange after...but...err..." she paused a moment and calmed down as she drifted away from the disturbing topic, "it may have left Sousuke in the subconscious merger, since that's a bit outside your firewalls. Because putting it inside the firewalls would just let the creep continue and"

And she twitched again, continuing on.

"...maybe get your marks checked just to be sure. But the...uh...actual...uh...pen...entr...mixing was in...other parts of the uh...yeah...minds. Normally fades off...guess...uh special case because of the spirit merger. Yeah. Right"

"Okay..." Kaname said, slightly confused at the behavior even if her concern was answered.

She looked aside a moment in talking to Sousuke and Eija.

"Is there any reason you suddenly turned into a babbling idiot?" McKay asked.

"Err, it's uh...nothing," Mara said hopefully, turning in an attempt to leave the room.

"It almost sounds like she's trying to give 'the talk'," Shepard noted.

Mara winced and tripped.

And Kaname's eyes widened.

"Did...did I just ask 'what do I do when I pop my psychic hymen?'" she asked weakly.

"Uhhh...talk to Belldandy," Mara said before puffing into smoke.

"Oh My God," Kaname whimpered.

* * *

"Miss Satomi, is something wrong?" Dr Hasuke asked the teenager who looked suddenly embarrassed and flustered.

* * *

"Hmmm," Sousuke said.

"What is it Urzu 7?" Mao asked as they sat around a table in a motel catching their breath.

"Any answer on what that whole seizure thing was?" Kurz asked irritably.

"Zeus made a psychic attack on Silmaril," Melissa said. "At least the part of it that was involved in the invasion. We know that. It got to us because Sousuke went to help Eija out."

"And I'm wondering how he knew to do that," Kurz said.

"Apparently my addition to their link is related to their spirit merger interacting with what may be a normal facet of certain activities," he said dryly.

"You know," Kurz said. "Three months ago, I would have killed to hear more about certain activities from you Sergeant, but maybe we should change topics and get to work."

"I'm certain I have no idea what you're talking about," Sousuke said calmly. "How can you be certain what sort of activities I am meaning?"

Mao slapped a hand to her face.

"At this point, Sagara, I think the only thing saving you from early death by Director Satomi is that he has her own things to say to the kids," the promoted lieutenant said.

"'He'?" Kurz repeated.

"Work," Mao snapped.

* * *

"He was here," Kurz said, coming out of the office. "Or at least they saw him sitting in the car while the room was ordered."

"This is where he was when he met this Koyla guy Socrates Group is so worked up over," Melissa said.

She looked down toward the rooms to see Sousuke walking back with a blonde woman also in civilian clothes and fitting in them better than the young man did. Two more people came from another direction, other individuals who'd been involved in the Helmjastad fiasco that had been supposed to take care of this problem months ago.

"Well?" she asked.

"Nothing, Lieutenant," the Texan said irritably. "This long after he was actually here? Don't know what we were expecting."

"I doubt we were expecting anything," Mao said. "Sousuke, got any inspiration?"

"Not at the moment," the young man answered. "As I already noted, I expected a trap at this point."

"So we're stuck playing cop while friends and comrades are fighting and dying in Japan," another of the men said. "Don't they have Intel for this crap?"

"I wouldn't call it 'crap'," the woman said quietly. "Remember Helmjastad, this is not someone to be simply discounted. And given the life of a civilian and person of interest is involved..."

A butterfly fluttered out of the air into their midst and down into Kurz's hand where it unfolded.

"Nimu says we had company," he said, nodding up toward a stone building converted into offices behind them.

The six mercenaries crossed the street quietly and moved into the old, empty building and moved upstairs, two hanging back on a stairwell to watch the entrance as the rest moved through the offices with no renters to a room were a slender, black-haired young woman had a pair of men handcuffed to opposing walls.

A third lay in a broken pile in the corner, filled with blades.

"These are Amalgam," she said simply. "They're looking for Gauron as well. At least, that's what they were saying when I found them. Would have tried to keep out of sight, but that one came down the hall and saw me."

She pointed to the dead man.

"And I wasn't quiet enough," she said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it," Kurz said, patting her on the arm. "Things happen, and at least we see the competition now."

Melissa nodded and walked over to look at one of the two men.

"Is it just me, or am I getting the vibe of a fellow American here?" she asked as she took in his style of dress and haircut.

"What of it," the man across the room from her said in a clearly American accent. "Do you think it matters what country you're from these days?"

"I'd think it damn well does at least matter if you act like you gave a damn about home," the Texan noted angrily.

"Did they have anything on them?" Kurz asked.

"A piece of nonsense," Nimu said, removing a paper from her pocket. "Perhaps it will make sense to someone else. To the son of Bdakshon's Tiger..."

And Sousuke immediately turned to look at her.

"I suppose that means you might know what this refers to," Nimu noted.

"Continue please," Sousuke said tightly.

"To the son of Bdakshon's Tiger," Nimu continued. "Meet Hamidra in Berlin."

"It's nonsense," one of the two prisoners said. "Like the akira..."

Kurz's foot snapped out into the man's face.

"Be polite," he said.

"Fine," the man repeated. "It's like the bitc..."

And Kurz kicked him again.

"Try not to be so insulted this time," Kurz said.

"Sergeant Weber," Nimu said. "I don't need..."

"Are you going to let me answer or just keep hitting me?" the man shouted. "What sort of interro..."

The blades tore out of the body behind Nimu and darted across the room, slashing lines across the prisoner's face on either side of him, with two blades stopping just short of his eyes.

"Do not interrupt me," Nimu noted with narrowed eyes.

Melissa smirked and then looked back toward the prisoner.

"Now, you were saying something?" Melissa asked.

"It's like the..." his eyes flickered to the knife point hovering inches in front of him, "...girl said. The thing is nonsense, we interrupted one of Gauron's errand boys trying to get that in the newspaper around here."

"So did you look for Hamidra in Berlin?" Kurz asked.

"If it had panned out, they'd already have left here," Andy said. "Which means..."

"Let's go," Sousuke said eyes moving to the windows and pressing against the wall. "These men were supposed to be captured."

"You two down there," Mao shouted as she moved to cover herself. "Get up here, we're moving on!"

The silent phut of suppressed gunfire rose up from below just as Grey and Batiste pushed their way into the room with the others.

"Trouble," Batiste said. Outside, the multiple taps and clinks of silenced but automatic fire covered the hallway outside.

"Signs of enemy support outside," Sousuke said. "Avoid the windows."

Kurz was moving for the door to see if he could take any shots on the people coming up the hallway. As he did so, his foot struck a patch of rotten wood and pushed down through, opening a wide hole in the floor that threatened to swallow him out.

At least until he was bodily pushed out of the way to fall, bruised but well a few feet away.

"Thanks, Nimu," he said, glancing toward the hole. "That was..."

He stopped and jaw dropped as he pointed.

Eyes drifted to the rotten hole and the substance stuffed into the framework of the buidling in between floors.

Brick after brick of C-4

"I'm really hating Europe," the German said grimly.

"We're going, now!" Mao shouted. "Everybody get close!"

And the group pulled together into a small group as Mao ran through a long sequence of numbers at high speed.

The Amalgam capture squad was coming into the room as the group vanished into the air. They cursed their slowness for the handful of seconds it took for the building to explode.

"This teleporting thing is going to make things a bit more difficult," a young Arabian man as he watched the building fall apart through a pair of binoculars.

* * *

The Mithril operatives appeared on a rooftop some miles away, and it didn't take long for them to recognize their hotel from the surroundings.

No one talked about the possibility, almost certainty, of civilian casualties from the blast. Maybe if they'd had more than a month or so of experience with being Ainur, they would have tried to interrupt or contain the blasts, but as it was?

"Why all the way back here?" Andy asked, curious as he watched smoke rising in the distance. "We could have looked for whoever set that bomb."

"Because I went for the quickest shift I could make that was still in the same area," Mao said, before looking to Sousuke. "Care to explain what that message means, Sergeant?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Sousuke said immediately. "Hamidra was a former comrade of mine in Helmjastad."

"I thought all your comrades got killed back then," Batiste noted curiously. "Besides, how can you be sure the message was meant for you?"

"Bdakshon's Tiger was a name used to refer to a particular resistance leader," the mercenary explained. "He named me Kashim."

"So, the son of Bdakshon's Tiger is you," Kurz said. "That's a round about way to get a message across."

"But how'd he know to trap that particular building?" Andy asked.

"Well that's simple," Batiste said.

"How so?" the blonde Texan asked sourly.

"Nimu was checking it out because it was the only really good place to set up surveillance on the hotel," Kurz said. "Because we were planning to set up there."

"Which is what Amalgam did," Grey agreed.

"And Gauron saw it coming," Mao finished shaking her head.

"Affirmative," Sousuke said.

"After Helmjastad, we should have assumed such a trap," Grey said.

"So I guess now we find Sousuke's old buddy Hamidra then," Kurz noted.

"Unfortunately, that will not be possible," the young mercenary said. "He was among those killed when Gauron attacked our camp."

Everyone stared at him.

"Then what the hell are we supposed to look for?" Andy shouted. "A corpse?"

"Negative," Sousuke said. "A Helmjstani electrician. That was Hamidra's occupation prior to being in the resistance."

Mao stared at Sousuke for a few moments as everyone exchanged looks.

"Sousuke, this guy has a serious hard on for you," Kurz said finally.

"This would appear to be so," Sousuke said.

"Berlin is in the fallout path out of Russia," Grey noted. "It's getting evacuated right now."

"Life is never easy, is it?" Mao asked.

* * *

"Well?" a tall man said angrily. "Who is to blame for this foul up?"

"In all honesty, Mr Simmons, how were we to know that Gauron would rig the whole building with enough TNT to put a hole in the world?" one of the soldiers asked.

"We're dealing with beings that can change the tides because they think hard," Simmons said snidely. "And Gauron knows it. Of course he's going to take extreme precautions."

"At least, sir," the agent said. "We suspect that the Mithril team took the bait and retrieved the message that Gauron had left."

"And given that Mithril operatives are currently capable of teleportation," he muttered. "They'll be heading to Berlin, trying to beat the fallout in the next couple of days. Have someone there to watch for them."

The agents nodded and slipped out of the room as Simmons considered the nature of the beings that Mithril had allied themselves with.

Oh what he'd do with that sort of power, the man thought to himself. To have the powers of a literal God. Able to remake the world in his image if he so wished. Perhaps to even control the very continuum of space and time.

Certainly someone like him would use it appropriately unlike these foolish bureaucrats and petty criminals that apparently wielded it right now. Massive levels of power and they weren't using save directly.

The concept that the Gods and Demons didn't want to make use of power on that level save to stop world-ending events because of the fact that using that much could be a world ending event didn't occur to him.

"You dream of power," a voice noted from the shadows. "Perhaps I can help you."

Simmons arched an eyebrow and glanced back over his shoulder toward the sound and he saw a figure sitting in a chair and leaning back into the shadows. There was something...off about the voice, but he still recognized it.

"Testarossa," he said irritably. "Amalgam is not interested in any more of your projects. If you leave right now I might give you a headstart away from the hounds."

"I'll leave shortly," Leonard said. "You realize how the Immortals operate don't you? A network around a massive generator and processor. Currently they are, all of them, weaker because of how many have died and the fact that they are fighting against each other. And my sister's nascent race isn't much better due to lack of numbers."

"I don't think you heard what I said, Testarossa," Simmons noted. "There is a kill order on you for the near crippling of our tactical units at Meridia. Had you waited to carry out your original plan, we would have had behemoths, plural and Mithril not on alert."

"It is immaterial," Leonard said. "The original goal remains and I should note. My sister is not the only Whispered in the family."

"I think she's calling herself 'Ainur' now," the Amalgam leader said.

"Hmmm, I wonder what they'd call me," Leonard said.

That attracted Simmons attention as the young man stood up, and stepped forward.

"I'll be coming back to take your decision," Leonanrd said.

Simmons had just a brief sight of something vaguely pulsing under the indistinctly discolored skin of Leonard's cheek. And then the world seemed to bulge outward around the other Testarossa. Then he was gone and the world snapped back into place.

* * *

West Berlin was already something of a ghost town when they arrived, but that didn't matter so much since the small group of mercenaries aimed their opportunities on the other side of the wall. And on that side, things were proven a bit slower to react.

Grey picked up a paper as it fluttered across the street and held it up.

"'East Germany stands strong in the face of a reckless Western assault,'" she read aloud with a taste of bitterness. "The Soviet Union has virtually doomed itself and dozens of other countries and they persist in blaming the situation on attacks from the Western powers."

She balled up the paper and tossed it away.

"Let's try not to attract any attention, all right?" Mao suggested under the hood she was wearing.

Behind her, Sousuke and Nimu were likewise covering his Asian appearance in the appearance of bundling up against the weather.

"Don't worry," Grey said. "We're hardly the only ones that are having trouble with that statement."

The European woman gestured across the street where several men were arguing in increasing vehemence with a trio of police officers. It was getting dangerously close to being an explosion of something more than civil disobedience.

"That's not something I expected to see over here," Kurz noted under his breath.

"We've got about twelve hours before this place goes radioactive," Batiste noted. "And last I heard, none of the four of you have anything like knowing how to keep the three of us not cancer-proof from getting dosed."

"Eija's own comment regarding nuclear fallout is that the Demons and Gods she's spoken to have 'preferred not to risk it'," Sousuke added.

"That's swell news," Andy muttered. "Let's get this over with quickly. How do we know there are any Helmjastani people here anyway?"

"Well, I'd think they'd be more likely to be in the USSR," Mao said. "But the Soviets did take Helmjastan and they do like spreading people around...keep them from getting together."

"And most of those 'immigrants' are down this road over here," Kurz said.

He turned a corner and the group held calmly as a handful of police ran down the street to support their fellows. Kurz was in the open as one of those cops turned about and caught a glimpse of his face.

That particular police officer froze momentarily and caught one of his friend's shoulders, turning back to point at Kurz's face.

Mao grimaced and glanced back over her shoulder at the others that had been preparing to follow Kurz out.

"Ah hell," she muttered.

"You there, with the tattoos," the curious police officer said. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm heading home," Kurz said. "Don't we need to be indoors for this chemical strike the West is sending here?"

A handful of the police officers started gathering forward as the majority moved to deal with what was rapidly becoming a riot further down.

"We had that report about some sort of subversive Western cult that tattoos their faces," a cop on the side said.

And as they got closer to Kurz it became increasingly obvious that he was wearing tactical armor under the street clothes that they had appropriated.

"I think you'll be coming with..." the cop started to say, reaching slowly for his pistol.

And suddenly the lot of them were lifted up into the air and tossed across the street. Nimu stepped forward, arm outstretched as the others came out behind her cautiously and weapons held out ready.

"Let's move, I want to get out of here ASAP," Mao shouted.

A flash in a window across the way attracted the attention of two of Mithril mercenaries. Andy and Kurz each looked up to see the barrel of a rifle slipping out of an upstairs window across the way.

"Sniper," Andy shouted as Kurz took his own shot.

Sousuke was taking point down the street, Batiste at his flank and MAo walking behind them, equally watching the front and the back. Nimu stepped past her then as the last two took up rear guard firing at the unseen sniper in the window above, forcing them to stay down.

"Kurz forward, Sousuke, back here," Mao snapped, popping a sequence of fire against the police men as she spoke.

The fire was returned as they darted around a corner, Mao muttering about international incidents as she did so.

They were around the corner, out of line of sight of the East German police when a small chunk of the wall next them was blown out and a rod of high speed metal sunk into the ground at their feet.

"The hell?" Andy asked as they kept moving.

The next cracking sound accompanied a sharp cry from Nimu as she was carried to the ground, a rod impaled through her side, practically nailing her to the concrete.

"Nimu!" Kurz snapped, not pausing before swinging his weapon behind his back and stepping down to lift her up off the ground.

Ideally, not removing the projectile or moving her swiftly would have been the preferred track, but he didn't think they could afford to take their time.

Another metal rod slashed through a wall and stabbed through Mao's shoulder, just about bringing her to the ground. The next two missed, but it was clear that someone was targeting them and targeting them through buildings.

Despite how visible it was, Sousuke immediately raised a battle aura of chi and angled himself between as many of his team members and the incoming fire as possible.

"Keep running!" Kurz shouted.

"Sergeant, head to Atlantis with Corporal Ichi," Mao shouted as another rod lodged at her feet.

"We're not going to have..." Kurz started to protest.

"It's a dimension away, you should be able to take just the two of you at a run," Mao snapped.

"I can still be of use," Nimu said painfully.

"Both of you out now," Mao snapped.

Reluctantly, Kurz shuffled through an array of numbers and vanished in a circular burst of energy to head for Atlantis and getting Nimu some medical attention.

Another metal rod slashed a deep line across Grey's cheek, barely avoiding taking her head off.

"What the hell is that?" Grey demanded.

Ahead of them, an armored transport pulled to a screeching stop as a police officer with an automatic weapon stepped out along with several other armed men.

Behind them, Andy paused and dived to the side into an alleyway.

"Hal..." the police officer stopped, goggling as he looked at the glowing form of Sousuke.

And then a metal rod tore through his skull and caving it in.

"Ah hell," Mao muttered, training her P90 forward as the East German police rose weapons to their arms and took aim.

Standing ahead of Batiste and Grey, Mao and Sousuke each glowed brightly with chi, deflecting most of the incoming fire from the police even as they kept moving and Batiste took a tear gas grenade and threw it into the midst of the cops.

Scattering in the gas, several more of the police officers were taken down lethally by the silent metal rods that were still peppering the route of Mithril's forces.

"They're trying to incapacitate us," Sousuke said. "It's why they're not so accurate."

"Hey, where the hell is Andy?" Batiste asked, grimacing as the four of them ducked into another alcove, giving scattered fire toward the East Germans.

* * *

"I've lost one," the spotter said with a bit of concern. "Is he showing up on your scope at all?"

"Who, the German and the telekinetic?" the sniper asked.

"No, someone other than them," the spotter said. "Keep a watch out."

"I'm trying to get them clear of the Nazis here," the sniper said. "Damn I love this rail gun."

"This isn't World War II," the spotter noted. "Those are communists not Nazis."

"Whatever, let me have my Wolfenstein fix," the sniper said negligently.

Frowning irritably, the spotter looked back down into his machine, which saw somehow through the majority of the buildings ahead of them pointing out the targets for the rail gun.

He failed to note the creaking of the door behind him, but the sound of a P90 unleashing bullets that tore through his and his partner's flesh was clearly recognizable.

"This is Andy," the Texan said in a cool drawl over the radio they'd brought in with them. "I got our debris problem taken care of."

* * *

"Understood," Mao returned as she grimaced and took into account the rod through her shoulder. "Give me a signal and I'll be there for pick up ASAP."

"All right," Andy's voice said, coming over the radio. "Think I've got a crystal that's supposed to do that for y'all types."

Mao signed off and cursed under her breath as she leaned forward, looking distinctly annoyed and upset.

"Is there a problem, Second Lieutenant?" Sousuke asked.

"Yeah, I'm going to have to fucking bug out," Mao said bitterly from the little corner they'd tucked themselves into.

"So is that as far as a marine can go?" Batiste asked curiously.

"Fuck no," Mao snapped. "But we're what got us held up here and targeted. I'm going to snap up Andy and head to Atlantis. Then Kurz and I are going to come back and stir up a distraction. You three get where we're supposed to go."

"How do we know we're even following the right clues?" Batiste asked. "The whole nuclear fallout and apocalypse thing must have put a bit of a spanner in this Gauron's plan."

"Have to try," Mao said.

She paused and glanced over toward where a burst of chi rose invisible not too far away.

"That's Andy," she said. "Sgt Sagara, get that information. And get out before the fallout hits."

"Affirmative," Sousuke said, snapping a quick salute.

After a quick run of numbers, Mao vanished in a circle of energy that swallowed her up and then vanished itself.

"This way," Grey said immediately, "I think I know where Weber was heading."

* * *

"What do you mean you can't send anyone with me," Mao demanded angrily.

She didn't even wince as the chi patch she held by force of will over the hole in her shoulder failed a little and some of her life blood leaked out onto Mara's floor.

The door pushed open incessantly as a rather mortified looking Kaname stuck her head into the room. She waved her hands at the clouds of the smoke in the room and started to open her mouth.

"Okay, you're not getting away that...is that blood?" Kaname asked, looking down at the floor and then noticing Mao for the first time. "Uhh, Melissa? Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine as soon as this wanna-be Mephisto gets off her duff and starts calling me help," Mao snapped angrily.

"You mean you haven't called for a doctor yet?" Kaname shouted.

"Not that kind of help," Mao said, waving her hand and wincing as the shoulder connected to that arm bled some more.

Mara looked over at Kaname as Mao was looking away and mouthed "Eija" before glancing up again to meet Mao's eyes with a small smile as the Ainur turned back to look at her. Kaname meanwhile nodded quietly.

"Now are you going to give me the people I need for my plan or am I going to have start actually debating?" Mao demanded. "Because I'm pretty sure you're not going to like the way I debate."

"I've actually had that debate with Director Satomi," Mara said. "Though she was a bit healthier at the time than you are now."

"You have the people," Mao asked. "Kaname, keep the telepathic chatter down right now. I'm busy."

"Yes," Mara said, stretching back in her chair as the smoke from her incense settled down from the ceiling, settling at about head level. "I've got Demons I can send to help you, especially with the battle calming down. I've got Shadows and Rakshasha galore looking for new orders."

Kaname sat down under the thickening cloud of smoke herself, eyeing it curiously.

"So what's the problem then?" Mao asked, eyes blinking as she tried to push the smoke out of her eyes and away from her head.

"The problem is, that I can't send them with you," Mara said. "I can and will send them with Sergeant Weber."

Mao wavered slightly as a head started to pull itself out of the pool of blood behind her. Eija's white face stared intently at Mao as she pulled herself slowly out and creeped inch by inch up behind the marine who was somewhat distracted.

"What the hell are you talking abo...?" Mao asked before tumbling forward and falling quickly unconscious as Eija caught her.

"Word to the wise, girls," Mara said as the smoke filtered back up toward the ceiling. "Never come at a warrior straight up. Even when it's a friend."

"Excuse me," Eija said, looking up from where she was guiding Mao's blood through passages that weren't there anymore. "I am a warrior."

Mara stepped over to her and patted her on her head.

"Sure you are, Eija," Mara said.

"No, really," the Goddess said as Mara moved toward the intercom.

"Doctor Beckett," she called out. "I've got an escapee for you."

"The marine lady with the inch diameter hole in her shoulder?" a weary Scottish voice asked. "Aye, I'll be right there."

"We still need to tal..." Kaname started to say, blushing fully, until she was interrupted with another burst of smoke.

Moloch was standing there in front of Mara then, looking patient.

"I'm ready to make a report." he said.

"Urgency?" Mara asked.

"Mild," Moloch said. "I believe Wraith is entertaining the idea of flogging a couple of civilians."

Eija and Kaname quickly exchanged concerned looks.

"Sousuke has urgent," Kaname said.

"Quite urgent," Eija agreed.

Mara pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head.

"It was much easier when I was the one making the reports," Mara said.

"Yes, well, that's why you have Director Satomi, isn't it?" Moloch asked with a smirk.

Mara twitched and glared at her subordinate.

"Eija when the Atlantis people get here," Mara said. "I need you to get word out to your mother and sister to get a meeting together ASAP. And tell me what's so urgent on your 'special friend's' end."

Both girls blushed.

"Uh, I had an idea about meetings and stuff," Kaname said. "To make it easier without having to have one of us repeat stuff."

"Good," Mara said. "Meantime, tell me what's important."

"Right," Kaname said.

* * *

"That's the last of it," Hammond said with relief. "Every major element of the enemy has been killed, captured or sealed. Kyushu is back in human hands. We've got contact with all the advance teams and, for the most part the civilian population is secure."

A butterfly appeared in the room, fluttering past the Japanese general and settling into Tessa's cupped hands before unfolding into a longer message.

The man frowned and looked toward the teenager as she read it.

"We should be expecting reports from Tokyo soon," she explained. "Geisthexe is getting reports in according to Satomi."

"And we'll get these as soon as she's done with them, I suppose," Hammond asked.

"About the same time actually," Tessa said, sitting down. "Now...this might be a bit...interesting."

Calling forth a keyboard console the way the Gods and Demons did was easy enough. However, those were most preset to show directly the code behind their memory and abilities. The connections that allowed the soul to interact with the world at large.

What she was trying to do now, was set it to receive a different sort of feed back. Until she had image in front of her that showed Ranma and Eija sitting in a field tent next to her secretary, Miss Readman. The in front of Eija was a console with two images, one of which showed Mara sitting at a table along with Moloch across from her and Athena and Hermes also sitting in the room. The second of which showed, somewhat to her surprise, the face of Grey and Batiste from Mithril's Indian Ocean fleet.

"So," Naiki's voice asked from off screen somewhere. "Is this thing on...or whatever?"

"Did you seriously just ask if your brain was on, Naiki?" Deimosu's voice asked, the "camera" twisting to look over at him.

"No, the spell, thing..." Naiki said.

"It's worked, Naiki," Tessa assured her. "This was a good idea of yours Kaname."

"Yeah, well, it kind of made sense," an unseen Kaname said. "Though I'm not sure whether or not Sousuke got the...thing right."

"You can say spell," Mara said. "It's allowed."

"We're getting this too," Grey said.

"Affirmative," came Sousuke's voice.

"Well," Kaname said. "They're still going to be able to tell we're talking, if they're close, that is."

"I believe there is constantly traffic between us," Tessa noted in a calming tone.

A moment later, Tessa's voice came out the console even though her mouth was closed.

"Naiki is a conversation unto herself, for instance."

"Hey!" Naiki responded. "Wait...is that bad...hey!"

"There may be some bugs still," Kaname said hesitantly.

"Don't think about..." Kaname and Eija's voices came out simultaneously.

"...puppies!" Kaname said.

"...kittens!" Eija said at the same time, producing a wince from her mother.

All three girls hung their heads in severe embarrassment as Ranma turned to look at Eija curiously and Mara started to visibly sweat.

"Can we get on with this? We're not exactly in a position to do a long briefing just now," Batiste said.

"Affirmative," Sousuke said.

A sound of screeching tires took Sousuke's eyes to see an East German police vehicle skid past on the road, probably seeking to put down another riot.

"It might be preferable to give our status report first," Sousuke continued as the vehicle moved on out of view.

"Generals?" Tessa asked, turning to look at the older men with her.

"If you don't mind, General," Hammond said, looking toward the Japanese man.

With a silent nod, the general concurred.

"Corporal Ichi and Second Lieutenant Mao were injured by a sniper armed with with we've been told is an Amalgam rail gun," Grey said. "Mao seemed to think the Ainur were too obvious, she's arranging some sort of distraction for us to continue the mission."

"It's looking like this Gauron is set on us causing an international incident," Batiste said.

"Have you made contact yet?" Hammond asked.

"Affirmative," Sousuke said unseen. "We have been led to a sort of impromtu courier, Gauron's made use of a civilian here in East Berlin."

"What's the message?" General Hammond asked. "Our team is standing by to go in on your word."

"A frequency," Sousuke said, relating the information as he looked down at a hand-written piece of information.

"Good," Hammond said. "Then maybe it's time you came back and that distraction won't be necessary."

"Well, about that, General," Grey said hesitantly as she accepted the message from Sousuke and unfolded it in front of what everybody assumed was the mercenaries face.

There was a big red "X" drawn on what was clearly a map of East Berlin. Below that were three nuclear symbols and three question marks with a time listed.

"By the Emperor," the Japanese general said. "He can't possibly have access to nuclear weapons."

"We interrupted him in an attempt to sell one such weapon in Helmjastan, General," Batiste said. "It could have just been one out of a stock. No one's said where he got it from."

"Well that's just dandy," General Hammond said.

"How much longer before you have fallout problems?" Tessa asked.

"Seven hours and counting," Sousuke noted. "The arranged meeting time is in three hours."

"And Second Lieutenant Mao is arranging you a distraction," General Hammond said.

"That's being taken care of," Mara said idly. "She have an idea and we're doing it for her."

"You?" General Hammond said. "Why not the lieutenant?"

"Lieutenant Mao and I had a discussion and I had an argument that she couldn't work around or bull through," Mara said with a smirk.

There was a visibly revealed expression crossed Director Satomi's face in response to Mara's smirk.

"Is there a way anyone can perhaps shove the fallout back?" Batiste asked.

"I could..." Eija started to say before Mara raised a hand.

"No need to ask another Goddess, Eija," Athena said. "I'm sure there's someone that could call up a windstorm and scatter it out, but there's the question of where does it go. Right now, we know and get people out of the way. Unless we're lucky enough to scatter it into the upper atmosphere and hope it leaks up into space, we're going to do is irradiate people without warning."

"That would be a no," Batiste noted with a cynical shake of the head. "I'm getting just a little bit too old for this sort of thing."

"I'm going to advise they meet at the arranged place," Tessa said, looking back over her shoulder.

"Agreed," Hammond said. "Your Sergeant Sagara can pull them out if time gets close."

"I might have something," Deimosu's voice said, and the view turned toward him.

"Really," Mara said. "You've got something we haven't thought of?"

"Electrokinesis," he suggested.

Mara glanced toward Tessa's face and then the "camera" that was Kaname's eyes.

"An electromagnetic shield to push it up..." Kaname said.

"Without killing anything in the area?" Tessa asked. "We'll need to speak to Major Carter I think...this is more her area of expertise."

"Major Carter was involved in fighting Zeus's virus," Mara reminded. "She might be best as a consultant only. Don't have her status."

"Probably be best not to have just one guy doing this," Ranma suggested. "I'll get a list of lightning Gods and Demons still in the can-fight lists."

General Hammond pointed to one of his aides signaling to pass on the word.

"I'll start passing the word around Asgard," Hermes noted, standing up and walking out of sight.

"Get to that," Hammond said, turning toward the Japanese general. "Apologies, sir."

Naiki looked aside a moment as Deimosu moved off.

"None needed," he said. "This isn't dealing with anything that immediately concerns my problem."

It was a pointed reminder.

"As I understand it," Sousuke said. "We're to walk into this last ambush of Gauron's and keep him busy."

"In the hopes that neither East German military, nor Amalgam will kill us in the meantime," Batiste said with a wry bit of humor.

"Sousuke is mission specialist here," Tessa noted. "Grey, command is yours in lieu of Lieutenant Mao."

"Understood, Captain," Grey said, snapping a salute. "We're out. Assuming we can figure out how to turn this off."

"Ummm...working on that," Kaname said. "Just turn off the console over there and I'll uh, figure out the rest later."

"Understood," Sousuke said.

"Find better cover for twenty minutes," Mara said. "Distraction begins about then."

They nodded and turned away from Sousuke to start moving. Though the view through Sousuke's eyes was still there.

"Are we allowed to know what the distraction is?" Hammond asked.

"General, you are a member of a recognized country on Earth," Mara noted. "We're Demons, what the hell can they say bad about us that hasn't already been said for a thousand years?"

"I advise that no one has heard anything regarding specific plans," Yomiko said.

The invocation of plausible deniability went no further.

"I think the next report is mine," Moloch said confidently, stepping forward. "Power is off in one third of the city currently, and the remaining relays have been shutting down at a thankfully decreasing rate due to something like a cascade of overloads that started with one relay station and moved outward."

"How the hell did you manage that?" Hammond asked.

"Inaba," Moloch said.

Ranma, Mara and Tessa groaned as A hand covered the eyes looking over at Mara were covered by a palm and Naiki's head cocked to the side, tilting the image as she tried to figure it out.

"How does she do that?" the Demoness wondered.

"Does someone want to clue us in?" Hammond asked. "Is Inaba an operative of some sort?"

"She's one of our schoolmates," Eija said calmly. "She has a predilection for...odd things."

"A psychic of some kind?" Athena asked.

"No," Ranma said. "Not a psychic, not a martial artist, no training of any kind. Just a...what did the nerd boy call her?"

"Rabid wombat," Kaname said in a mortified tone.

"Sounds a lot like Eris," Athena said.

"Whatever happened to her?" Mara asked.

"Took too much of a risk mid 20th Century and got killed when someone realized she was keeping a particular dictator crazy and ineffective," the Goddess of Wisdom said.

"Ahh," Mara noted with a shiver. "Scariest third category ever."

"I'd call her second category just on the random factor," Moloch noted.

"I swear," Hammond said, looking toward Tessa and the Japanese officer. "It must be me that attracts these people. Colonel O'Neil isn't even in hearing and I still have banter interrupting the meeting."

"My apologies," Athena said, please continue.

"We have also, through sabotage, destroyed ten Mantles," Moloch said. "The rebel Gods are trying to convince the operators to shut the remaining down to have them checked for sabotage."

"Trying to convince," the Japanese general said. "What?"

"Most of the time," Moloch said. "The pilot gets in an argument with the engineers and has to be 'restrained' while he tries to prevent them from stealing 'his' or 'her' Mantle."

"They have wide-spread disobedience?" the Japanese general asked.

"And brawls," the Demon said. "We've seen at least a half-dozen engagements involving at least two Mantles. So far, local civilians have avoided getting involved. And we've started quietly moving them out of the area."

"What is Zeus doing with all of this?" Tessa asked. "He hasn't asked so stupidly yet."

"Zeus is fled, and most of his leadership is dead," Moloch said. "Given what I understand of his recent track record, I think I would avoid accepting any invitations to a feast with him. Though, Aphrodite might be an interesting way to go."

"What happened this time?" Ranma asked.

"A human civilian of your acquaintance, Director Satomi," Moloch said. "Infiltrated the servant staff and poisoned the wine for a celebratory toast, killed at least five hundred of the more prominent rebels. I believe her name is Kasumi Ono."

Ranma's mouth dropped and she blinked several times before saying something.

"Okay, Akane never killed anyone," she said in clear shock.

"In any case, for the moment, they are vulnerable," the Japanese general said. "And we've got what we need to recover this kidnapped girl. When can we move?"

"We should already be moving to track down Skuld," Hammond said. "The rest?"

He looked down toward the image of Eija.

"The doctors will have accurate numbers on casualties in three hours," the Goddess of Blood said. "They are high, in all areas. Zeus's virus took a toll before it could be cured."

"We'll need that to formulate a plan," Tessa said.

"We know, Captain Testarossa," Eija said quietly.

* * *

"Okay," Shepard said. "This is Koyla, we know he's not alone and we know this isn't going to be anything like a simple exercise."

He looked out over a squad of sixteen Socrates Group soldiers, armed and ready for a heavy battle.

"And yeah, we've got superpowers now, some of us," Shepard said. "But from what we've heard, we're still vulnerable to bullets unless we focus. So nobody get reckless, got it?"

"Yeah, don't worry," Ronan said with a shrugging smile.

"We will be as cautious as normal," Teyla said.

"For you that's a good thing," Shepard said.

"Major," Captain Lorne said. "I wouldn't be throwing any stones if I were you."

"Right," Shepard said. "Okay, let's go save a girl."

* * *

"All right, Banpei," Chihiro said. "Can't do much to improve your equipment, but that should be a good improvement on efficiency."

She looked over at her helpers, Keiichi of course, Belldandy as well now that the Kyushu battle was mostly over, and the two traitors, whom received a death glare.

"And now all you need is where," Athena said with a smile as she came into the room.

* * *

"Now," Simmons said, suiting up. "Remember, they're reality warping things. If you see that mark on their face, shoot first and ask questions later. Everybody understand?"

"Oh, I think I can understand that loud and clear," an older man said with a slight curve of the lip forming a knowing smirk.

"Mayborne, this is your last chance to get back into the organizations graces," Simmons said. "The entire attempted infiltration of Socrates Group is a shambles largely due to your incompetence."

"Trust me on this one, Simmons," Mayborne said calmly. "Nothing's going off mission this time."

* * *

A ringtone caught Koyla's attention and he picked up the cell phone, checking the text that came through.

"Your invitations have been made," it read.

Koyla moved away from the mercenary exorcist and headed for the door holding his prisoner. He reached for the handle and then found himself thrown across the room by what felt like an extreme electric shock.

"What the hell?" he wondered, standing up shakily as everybody stared at the wall.

After a few moments of silence, the sound of clanking metal was clearly heard.

"Get us in there!" he shouted.

Skuld looked briefly back over her shoulder before turning back down to her work. Thank goodness for that weird power surge earlier, it had given her just the boost she needed to start up the whole electro-force-field thing now all she had to do was hope she didn't drain the city before she was finished.

That was what was giving her time to put this together after all.

Well...these really.

* * *

"Everyone get out of here, stand down or we will fire!" one of several policed officers ordered as a line of them pointed weapons into the crowd. "Get indoors and keep the windows closed and this Western attack will pass us over like the angel of death in those old myths."

"Western attack nothing!" a woman shouted. "This is coming out of the East, not the West. They've already evacuated over there."

"And when this time has passed, we will claim the rest of Berlin as our sovereign..." the man stopped.

He'd just seen a burst of smoke in the midst of the crowd of demonstrators, followed immediately by another.

"I did not give orders to fire the gas yet!" he shouted.

There was another burst of smoke and then another, each followed by an immediate echo of the same burst. As another happened, the officer caught sight of a figure in the smoke grabbing two people and then vanishing.

"Wh...what?" he said. "They're...kidnapping the..."

His voice was cut short as a woman appeared beside him and punched him across the street. Reaching out with her hands, the ground underneath the shocked police officers bulged upwards into the undulating form of a massive python which swiftly knocked them off their feet and gladly accepted the bullets pinging into its stone form.

"Greetings," the Demoness said. "We're the evacuation team. Hang on tight and leave everything to us."

More bursts of smoke appeared all over the area as people shrieked in surprise and uncertainty.

Watching from around a corner, two police officers called into a radio, demanding reinforcements. Only to have radio taken out of their hands and bringing them to look up into the red-marks of another Demon.

"Distraction, achieved," he said with a smile before dropping in the middle of them.

* * *

Naiki left the area quickly as soon as the meeting was over. She saw the look that Eija was getting from her mom, and there was no way, absolutely no way, she was hanging around for that conversation.

She'd already gone out on a limb by helping her sister clean up before they'd left on

Instead, she found herself wandering off to find...and she didn't believe she was actually doing this...she was looking for Lusca.

It didn't take long to find the girl.

She was skipping along one of the beaches up and down the sand and into the water occasionally, twirling an umbrella while while the water around her seethed and occasionally erupted into huge bursts of water.

Often tentacles in the process of crushing some mutated sea life were involved in those eruptions as well.

"Singing in the rain," Lusca said cheerfully as water and blood and bits scattered down over her umbrella. "Just singing in the rain. What a glorious feeling. I'm happy again. I'm laughing at clouds. So dark above. And I'm ready for love!"

A mutant crab was torn apart in the last bit as Lusca spun around and rose up on her tippy toes, a pair of tentacles helping her keep balance without falling over in the pose.

"You know doing stuff like this just makes you creepier," Naiki said. "Do you want people to think you're crazy?"

She twisted into a yamasenken motion to slice through a...maybe it was a jellyfish...that had been try to push past the tentacles to get at Lusca.

"I am crazy!" Lusca said cheerfully as she skipped right over to where Naiki was. "I am not Eternal. I don't get invited to their tea party or anything. May have peeked in the door once, don't remember for sure. But that's fine, I've been alive fifty seven times and I'm not finished yet."

"You've reincarnated fifty-seven times?" Naiki said.

"I've reincarnated ninety-three times," Lusca said. "And Reincarnated fifty-seven times. Mars used to be pretty."

She hummed along and splashed in the water.

"Wait, what?" Naiki asked, moving in closer.

"I like being a little crazy," she said idly. "I'll have to remember that next time. Crazy is good. There's no voice about 'what will everybody think' nope. The only question I have to remember to ask this way is 'who will get hurt' and once that's answered...yay!"

Behind her, the tentacles, apparently out of monsters to kill for now, rose up in a wave and then crashed back down again, washing over both Naiki and Lusca.

At which point, Lusca reached out to grab Naiki's hand, stopping just shy of touching.

"Your mother wouldn't like me touching you without asking," Lusca said cautiously.

"You could always blackmail me," Naiki said shrugging. "Does she allow that?"

"Umm...okay," Lusca said. "So...dance with me, or I'll ask you to sing I in a little t-top on TV."

"Tea pot," Naiki said.

"Umm, that's not what I said," Lusca noted, blinking.

The green-haired demoness arched an eyebrow and tried to figure out what the girl meant and then smiled a bit.

"Ohhh, that's a good idea," she said. "I'll have to think of that one for a favor."

"So, umm...dance?" Lusca asked, reaching over to point at Naiki's hand.

"Answer me a question first," Naiki said.

Lusca thought about it for a moment as a pair of tentacles behind her tried to have a thumb war minus thumbs.

"Okay," she said finally.

"Uhh, you're supposed to be bound, right?" Naiki asked. "Are you really?"

"Yep," Lusca said cheerfully. "That was easy, let's dance now."

"But..." Naiki pointed toward the tentacles, which looked a bit less solid and large suddenly.

"Ohhhhhhh, right," Lusca said darting forward. "Mutant sea-creatures aren't funny."

"Who bound you?" Naiki asked.

Lusca opened her mouth cheerfully and was about to answer when she stopped with a confused look over her face. Then she turned to look back at Naiki.

"You know, I can't remember," the Demoness said. "Let's see, I was doing something at the time. I remember saying 'this way you're harmless crazy except when you have to be dangerous' not sure what that's about. I think I was talking to someone, but I don't remember seeing anybody. Maybe there was a mirror? Nope, no mirrors. So...I couldn't have been talking to anybody. So why did I say that?"

She thought about it for a little bit longer and then shrugged and turned back to Naiki.

"Can we dance now?" she asked.

Naiki smiled nervously and took the girl's hand before being dragged along on another rendition of "singing in the rain". Though all the tentacles had sunk into the water now and had not risen back up.

Lusca needed a bit of help without the extra balance aids to keep from tripping over her own feet head-first into rocks and sand. But at least she seemed to be having fun.

Though she get a bit high pitch and gripped tightly as she got back to the line "ready for love."

* * *

Author: So, yeah, Mao's idea for a distraction was "evacuate the civilians they're going to let die while the 'important' people runaway somewhere"

And Lusca is now officially voiced by Shinohara Tomoe, go to youtube...look for Ultra Relax...Kurukuru Mirakuru...and...Singing in the Rain


	47. Shell Game

Eija walked into her quarters nervously ahead of her mother, but the redhead followed in quickly and made sure the door was shut behind her.

"Is something wrong, Okaasan?" the pale Goddess asked.

"Did some..." Ranma stopped and reached down to a pile of discarded clothes and picked up a shirt. "There's residual chi in this, lots of it."

"Oh, I thought Naiki got rid of that," Eija said quietly, immediately closing and covering her mouth.

"Naiki!" Ranma said quickly. "What does Naiki have to do with this?"

"Nothing!" Eija said. "Nothing. I just..." She gestured hopelessly.

Ranma took a deep breath and directed Eija to sit down, which the girl did, taking a demure posture.

_What's going on?_ Kaname asked.

_Okaasan is asking me about last night,_ Eija responded.

_How the heck does she know?_ Kaname asked.

_I do not think we covered our tracks very well,_ Sousuke noted. _Mao and Kurz have made some comments that imply that they may have guessed something has happened._

_It's not like she could have heard from the twenty or thirty people that noticed we switched blouses on accident. Or the people that heard me talking about...you know._ Kaname replied. _She's been fighting all day._

_She just found your blouse in my room, Kaname,_ Eija said.

"Privacy," Ranma said, crossing her arms.

Eija looked to her momentarily and then nodded hesitantly.

_I've got to go,_ she sent meekly.

_Good luck,_ Kaname said.

_It shall be fine,_ Sousuke assured her.

And then Eija rose a mental screen between her and the other two, such that she could only just feel them there past the barrier.

"Tell me what happened," Eija's mother demanded, not harshly, just insistently.

"We...Sousuke-kun and I," Eija said. "We went to go talk to Kaname because we found out about her father dying in New York and Sousuke-kun had learned her brother was safe."

"I knew that part," Ranma said nodding with a firm expression on her face. "Where'd it go from there?"

"We talked about cheering each other up," Eija said, her face started to flush. "And then decided to practice kissing and...will...uh"

She wrung her hands out nervously and looked around anywhere but at her mother.

"It's...uh kind of a...blur?" Eija said hopefully.

"I don't want a blow by blow," Ranma said. "I very much don't want a blow by blow."

"Oh thank goodness," Eija said, giving a long, relieved breath and then straightening up and looking over at her mother's twitching face.

"So everything just...exploded," Ranma said.

"That does describe a lot of it," Eija said pale cheeks almost red as she thought about it with a slight smile.

"Not. Helping," the red-headed exorcist said.

"I'm sorry, Okaasan," Eija said quietly hanging her head.

Ranma flexed her fingers and took a breath.

"Did you use protection?" she asked.

From what Ranma could see of Eija's mana, she didn't think a pregnancy was conceived, but that might just because she couldn't recognize the queues.

"Uhhh...no," Eija said, flushing as her shoulders hunched together and she leaned her arms into her knees and looked downward.

Ranma brought her hand up to her her face and leaned into it.

"Do you know enough about your new anatomy and life force to tell if you've conceived?" Ranma asked.

"Uhhh...no," Eija admitted.

"What do you know about parthenogenesis?" her mother asked firmly.

"I...haven't thought to ask," Eija said. "Kaname and I are not interested in...uh...that."

"So just Sousuke then," her mother asked pointedly.

Eija was quiet for a long moment.

"Honesty," Ranma said.

"Yes," Eija responded quickly. "Definitely yes, oh yes! It was so...I'm sorry..."

Ranma was twitching again.

In reality, Ranma severely doubted that three sexually inexperienced teens had really reached the pinnacle of pleasure in their first time. Though given it probably was very...intense, they probably thought they had. But she wasn't about to start giving advice on how they could do better.

"So, you let yourself have sex, unplanned, unprotected," Ranma summarized. "And without out full understanding of what that means for you."

"Okaasan, you did tell us about such matters before," Eija protested.

"I gave you a talk on the human reproductive system," her mother reminded her. "I expected you to ask about what is involved for Goddesses."

"First thing," Ranma said. "You are going to, as soon as we've got time, ask someone to explain about reproduction for a God. Cycles of fertility, early symptoms of pregnancy, parthenogenesis. The whole works. Understand."

"But Kaname and I aren't..." Eija protested.

"Do you absolutely know that you have to have sex for it to happen?" Ranma asked.

"Well...isn't that how..." she stopped puzzled.

"Reality bending," Ranma said firmly.

"Ah, uh...right," the Goddess said, flushing at the thought of accidentally impregnating her friend.

The questions they'd have to answer alone...well, they could always ask Sousuke to claim...

"Do you understand what you're supposed to do?" Ranma asked firmly.

"Yes," Eija said meekly and quickly. "I should, study reproduction."

"Then you're going to tell me," Ranma commanded, leaning forward. "Have it prepared and organized."

"Yes, Okaasan," the young Goddess said, tone of voice already mortified at the thought.

"You are not to have unsupervised time with Kaname and Sousuke," Ranma said firmly. "Someone has to be on hand with you and I have to know who it is."

"For how long?" Eija asked.

"Until I decide I can trust you again or until you turn eighteen and an adult," the exorcist noted. "But I really don't expect this to last even half a year. If it does we have larger issues going that we haven't thought about."

"Half a..." the dark-haired girl repeated. "But..."

"Eija," Ranma said.

"Yes, Okaasan," she said quietly. "I understand."

"I want to hear about what you've learned in no more than a week," the red-head noted finally. "And that's accounting for the war and like around us."

Eija winced and then nodded.

"Do you know why I'm pissed?" Ranma asked finally.

"I believe so," the Goddess said. "I had...umm, relations with Sousuke-kun. I thought you liked Sousuke-kun."

"I do, and Kaname," Ranma said. "But that's not the main thing. If this happened two or three years from now, the sex part wouldn't even bother me," mild lie there. "Other stuff, though, try again."

Eija thought about it for a moment and winced.

"I had...uh...sex before I was eighteen?" she said cautiously.

"I just gave you that one," Ranma prodded. "What else?"

"And, I didn't make sure protection was used," Eija added.

"So, to summarize?"

"I acted without thinking?" she answered.

"And what do we call that?" Ranma asked.

"Panda?" Eija wondered.

"That's right," the exorcist said. "Panda. Now, you're going to end up getting asked to do something pretty soon, so get yourself ready."

"I will, Okaasan," Eija said quietly.

The redhead stepped up and leaned forward to hug her daughter tightly, patting her on the back and cradling her head.

"All in all," Ranma said encouragingly. "I think you have a good couple of significant others there, but now's not the time. Got it?"

"I think so," Eija said, wrapping her arms around her mother and holding her back. "I'll keep control of myself, Okaasan."

Ranma rubbed at her back before straightening and stepping back.

"I'm going to have to see the lynchpin in this situation," she said. "Get some practice in and then rest."

"All right," Eija said.

Ranma smiled once more, snatched up Kaname's school uniform blouse and strode purposefully out of the room.

_It's over,_ Eija said over her link then.

_What happened, are you okay?_ Kaname asked.

_I doubt Director Satomi would harm her daughter,_ Sousuke noted.

_Of course she wouldn't hurt Eija,_ Kaname said. _Built still, what happened?_

_She doesn't want me to spend time with either of you without supervision for now,_ Eija said. _And I am supposed to research God reproductive matters...and deliver a report on it._

_Oh God, how embarrassing,_ Kaname said.

_That would seem prudent,_ Sousuke noted.

_Indeed, I should have thought of such on my own,_ Eija said. _Rather than merely assuming._

_Is she there right now?_ Kaname asked. _You didn't mention the...psychic thing, did you?_

_No, and no! I am not insane,_ Eija protested. _Okaasan said she had to see the 'lynchpin' and left._

_Okay, so we have until the end of Sousuke's mission to..._

Kaname's thoughts paused a moment as a trickle of almost fear worked out from her part of the link.

_Uhh, I have to go,_ she said.

_Is there something troubling you?_ Sousuke asked quickly.

_Miss Satomi is right behind me asking for privacy,_ Kaname told Sousuke.

_Oh dear,_ Eija said. _If it helps, she still says she thinks you and Sousuke are a good choice..._

_That's comforting,_ Kaname said meekly.

* * *

"Shall we start with whose idea it was to 'practice kissing'?" Ranma asked, as Kaname turned around to face her. "Because that's just about the perfect phrasing to rope both Sousuke and Eija in."

"All I was planning on was the kisses, I swear," Kaname said quickly. "I mean, they might have...my Dad...Sousuke still might..."

Ranma relented briefly and reached out to hold Kaname's shoulders and steady the girl before she could freak out further.

"Okay," Ranma said. "The kissing is fine. But you didn't stop there."

"Well, I didn't kiss Eija," Kaname said. "I mean, why would I do that to her? She wouldn't do that to me. And it's not like you're my parent, because my parents are..."

"Stop it," Ranma said firmly and moved to sit Kaname down on the bed and then sitting across from her. "Calm down."

"I just...I could feel what she felt when they kissed," the blue-haired girl said, trying not to get excited. "And she could feel it when I did. And then we could both feel Sousuke and he could feel us, but that might have started with the haircut..."

She stopped and stood up starting to pace as Ranma watched.

"I just felt better each time and better and better," Kaname said. "And I kept thinking we might die today and...and..."

"And you and my daughter had underaged, unprotected, unplanned sex with your boyfriend," Ranma said.

"It's the un-stuff that bothers you most, isn't it?" Kaname asked.

"You certainly figured that out fast, did Eija tell you that?" the martial artist asked.

"She told me about some report," Kaname said. "So, it sort of makes sense. But, uh, we're not underaged in Japan?"

"Japan has schools that require female students to wear skirts no _longer_ than a certain amount," the redhead said. "Much as I like my home country, it's not number one on my list of discouraging teen-sex."

"Right," Kaname said before bowing. "I'm sorry about this, Satomi-san."

"Now, you're not my kid," the woman said, "so technically, I don't get a say in what happens to you. But we are doing stuff for Mara right now..."

"And Mara answers to you," the Ainur noted nervously. "Umm, about Sousuke..."

"Sousuke gets his own talk," Ranma said simply. "He'll get to choose whether to tell you or not himself."

The redhead stood up and started to walk out of the room.

"Oh, by the way," she said at the doorway. "You're getting training. If you want to keep seeing my daughter after pulling this, you're getting trained."

Kaname winced.

"I have no problem with that, Satomi-san," Kaname said firmly.

"Good," Ranma said. "And if you want to talk to me about your parents...I can do that. Without incident."

"Uhh, thank you, Satomi-san," Kaname said with a blush before Ranma left.

_I live!_ Kaname declared thankfully.

There was silence on the link for a moment.

_Is Director Satomi...very upset?_ Sousuke asked.

_I think we need to wait a couple of years before we try this again..._ Eija said. _Or at least learn to hide it better._

Ranma poked her head back in the door.

"And just so you three know," she said. "Given that Sousuke is apparently in on that link thing now, 'hiding it better' is in no way something you want to try to do."

"Uhhh, how..." Kaname asked.

"I'm a parent, Kaname-chan," the martial artist said before leaving again. "Now get yourself together, Captain Testarossa will be looking for you to work on the electro-shield thing soon."

* * *

The site arranged for the meeting was more or less empty, though neither of the three believed that had anything to do with the Demons and Ainur currently running evacuation grabs and keeping the police busy.

It was a poor part of town, though East Germany would likely have never admitted to such a thing being possibly, and there should have been life aplenty in the old buildings that lined the roads around them.

Instead, the buildings yawned dark and empty from every direction as the three Mithril agents came into the area. A single police vehicle, one of the large prisoner-transport vans, was parked oddly on the side of the street within sight, perhaps half a mile away.

"It's almost time for this meeting," Grey said. "You'd better be getting to it Sergeant Sagara."

"Affirmative," Sousuke said, frowning as he eyed the buildings around him. "I do not like the look of this Ma'am."

"I'm with the kid," Batiste said. "This looks a bit too much like a trap."

"I could attempt to use one of the routines we have established for remote viewing," Sousuke suggested.

"Let's keep that down to a minimum," Grey said. "We know there are ways to tell when powers are being used that don't require people who have them."

"I've got my eye on the paddy wagon down the lane," Batiste said. "We'd better move before we have three new nukes to consider."

Nodding, Sousuke moved out into the quiet street and darted from cover to cover before reaching the structure that he was certain contained his target.

It was an old building which still had the faded image of a dragon with nine heads painted into one of the walls. A piece of ancient culture, though culture that had been carried north rather than was native, that had been protected from the purges of the communists and now revealed to the air again.

He stepped inside, pistol out and searching the shadows cautiously as Grey and Batiste came in next.

There was no movement in the open first room, which may have been a tavern of some kind, and they cautiously moved about to clear the room before proceeding upstairs.

Batiste stopped at one of the tables and pointed toward the still steaming bowl of stew that sat there. Grey nodded at the sign of recent occupation and looked toward Sousuke, directing him to head upstairs with a gesture.

_Are you certain that you cannot risk using any sort of chi?_ Eija's voice asked. _You might find some use out of my eyes._

_I believe I could,_ Sousuke said. _It shall be fine, however._

_Sousuke,_ Kaname voiced in, _It is silly to just go in blind._

_I am not,_ the mercenary noted. _Do not worry, this is not my first time._

Neither girl was especially happy with that response, but they did not insist.

He took the stairs heading up one at a time, moving slowly and placing his weight slowly so as to avoid creaking sounds. And he finally reached the top of the first flight and the door there that was left just slightly ajar.

Behind the old, wooden door that fit the look of the ancient building perfect was a high tech piece of metal half-slid open. A useless and destroyed keypad was built into the frame work of the doorway that the wooden door had concealed. Beyond lay a dusty hallway that may have, once upon a time been a lead in to a sterile environment. From somewhere within came the steady, distant beep of a heart monitor.

The nine-headed dragon outside suddenly had a separate meaning than just Gauron.

He glanced down the stairs toward Grey.

"It's a Legion facility," he said under his breath.

Grey passed that along and Batiste cursed under his breath as he followed them up the stairs, eyes looking out toward the street.

Stepping into the hallway, Sousuke looked from one direction to another, noting the doors that opened out onto silent rooms before coming to an end and overlooking what had been an extensive and well-tended indoor garden and now was an overgrown mass of thorns and red flowers.

In the middle of it all was a bed holding someone Sousuke couldn't get a good look at, but whose identity he was certain of.

"Ah, Kashim," a familiar and hated voice said. "Did you bring your friends?"

Sousuke frowned and found a stairwell to move down into the vines and approach the man on the bed as Grey and Batiste came into the room and onto the balcony. Grey indicating for Batiste to hold his position.

"Gauron," Sousuke said, turning past a particularly thick bush and saw the sociopath's darkly smiling face staring up at him.

The face, aside from one eye bandaged over, seemed to be the only part of the man that still seemed to be intact. One arm was gone completely and the other seemed to have been removed at the elbow while both legs were removed at various points. Nor did it look like the overall body under the bed sheet was in good shape.

There was a table at the foot of the bed covered in dossiers.

"Sorry if the place isn't fit for visitors," Gauron apologized with a smile. "The lady of the house hasn't been around for a while."

"Where are the bombs, Gauron?" Sousuke asked, glancing around and wondering how Gauron had expected to trigger the bombs in his current condition.

"Straight to business," Gauron laughed. "That's always you, Kashim. Now, how do you expect to get me to tell you? Are you going to torture me until I talk?"

He laughed in a low tone that was full of grim humor.

"I'm beginning to think it was just a bluff to get me here," the Ainur said. "Maybe I should just leave you to your privacy and head back."

Sousuke glanced down at the dossiers and frowned as he took in the names and some of the organizational seals displayed. Socrates Group's Atlantis unit was named on each folder, with Kodachi's seal presented. The surprise on his face must have been apparent because Gauron laughed again, loudly this time.

"Yeah, my little rose had encountered a lot of people in power before your people managed to weed her out," Gauron noted. "Mithril seems to be good at handling my proteges it seems."

"Your protege?" the Ainur asked darkly. "What do you mean."

"It's probably too strong a word," Gauron admitted. "I simply...took away the garden walls. They were rather weak to begin with, though, so not much of a task."

Sousuke seethed at the words and Gauron's admittance to having some part in what Kodachi had done, but forced himself to stay calm, remembering that Gauron wanted to make a big scene out of this. He coolly pointed his pistol at Gauron's head, and noted the man's smile in response.

And the pistol pointed up, away from Gauron.

"You want me to kill you," Sousuke said, eyes narrowed. "Something connected to your heart monitor?"

"Very good, Kashim, very good," Gauron said, smile shrinking a little. "But what is it, do you think?"

"One of these bombs, if they exist," Sousuke said.

"But that still leaves the other two," Gauron said. "If it is here at all."

His smile grew again.

"Trust me when I say these threats, possibly bombs, are real," the mutilated form on the bed said with cold seriousness. "And if you were still the old Kashim, I think you'd be able to see that with no question."

Behind Sousuke, Grey and Batiste started moving again, searching to see if they could find a bomb on the sight.

"Stop calling me that," Sousuke insisted.

"I find it amazing that you have so totally bought Kalinin's hypocritical lectures," Gauron said. "When it's been very much proven that he didn't follow them himself. So, why are you still following a soiled knight's teachings, Kashim?"

"I don't know why Kalinin did what he did," Sousuke said, voice turning dark. "But I know he'd never be what you are."

"All of us are like me," Gauron said. "Especially you. Some of us just know how to let the leash go and be what we really are."

"Kalinin was a good man," Sousuke declared loudly.

"A good man who betrayed his fellows for his own purposes," Gauron laughed.

The pistol snapped up again, but Sousuke immediately pulled it back and grimaced in frustration as Gauron frowned.

"Have you gotten that soft then?" Gauron asked. "Have you fallen for the whole champions of justice crap Mithril tries to shove down their own throats. Look at them closely, Kashim, they're just like the rest of us, using their might to impose what's right on the world. And if certain elements weren't clouding your judgment you could see that."

"Certain elements," the mercenary repeated. "What are you..."

His eyes snapped to the Legion files on the Atlantis crew and snatched them up, skimming through the files until he found what he was looking for.

"Suggestion implanted."

Complete with trigger phrases and limitations.

_We're going!_ Eija and Kaname said.

* * *

"This whole episode is just one big screw-up," a tall man with glasses was saying to the Goddess walking beside him. "It had to take sheer laziness for nobody to figure out anything was going wrong. People have no idea just how stupid they are sometimes."

The Goddess, a civilian firmly in the third category, smiled briefly and then slumped in irritation as the man continued to try to explain just what her people, his and the Demons had done wrong and what he would have done to fix things. She suspected he was hitting on her, but that was something of a vague notion given the way he kept talking about people being idiots.

"And if only one little thing had been done, we'd be living in peace right now rather than war," he said. "But that's what the military does, they go to war, and they'll jump at any chance to..."

The man was roughly grabbed and slammed into the wall, hands placed behind him.

"Oh thank the creator!" the Goddess said. "He just kept talking and following me! I'm getting out of here while you have him busy."

"Doctor Peter Kavanagh," the security officer said. "We have reason to believe that you brought a package on board past the standard checks."

"Look what I'm talking about!" he declared. "They just attack me for no reason. Over a box of snack food."

"Uh huh," the officer noted. "And where is this snack food?"

"In my quarters obviously, where else would you keep snack food," Kavanagh protested.

Word was relayed and men split off, moving quickly and talking over the radio.

"Dr. Kavanagh, have you ever met a Kodachi Kuno?" the soldier asked.

"Maybe, she's a biologist, isn't she?" he asked. "Maybe at the last convention I attended..."

The soldiers exchanged looks and glanced toward him.

"Don't you read memos and threat-assessments?" someone asked.

"Oh please, like I'm going to believe the military when they say someone is a human version of a virus," he protested.

"We found the bomb," the radio crackled. "Sending it to a dead shard now. Not sure how he intended to detonate it. There's no way a radio signal will reach here from Earth."

"What bomb?" Kavanagh asked.

* * *

"You have no idea what it took to get to those before one of your teams found them," the freak said with a chuckle. "Luckily, Kodachi wasn't one to trust computers completely. All paper and only one place. We got lucky."

"We?" Sousuke said sharply, resisting the urge to teleport immediately to Kaname and Eija and get them to safety.

"Oh, did that slip out?" the thing on the table asked with a chuckle. "So, you have two bombs, or at least you think you do. Where's the third, Sousuke. Where's the third?"

Sousuke gritted his teeth silently and held his pistol tighter as he walked up to Gauron's side, trying to think of anything that he could do to threaten the man with that would actually work. But Gauron had never been one to care about...anything...even before.

"I have to admit," Gauron said. "I had trouble with that one myself. I mean, this city was obvious, if the bomb is here. Atlantis is obvious, since I had access. But where else could I put a bomb that would matter?"

"Tokyo," Sousuke said. "Where Eija and Kaname would be if the Gods hadn't invaded."

"Ah, I knew you could figure it out, of course, that was the original plan, perhaps they never finished their trip when things went to hell...or is that heaven?" Gauron suggested with a snicker. "So what are you going to do then, Kashim? Three bombs, maybe, connected to my heart monitor, possibly. Killing me sets them off, not killing me, well, I die relatively soon anyway. Probably before you can get to a satellite feed outside this building and report to your superiors. You know, I was at first disappointed when Leonard jumped the gun on his raid, but now I can't complain. It's left me with such great resources."

He opened his mouth and started to give a sequence of numbers before he was interrupted.

"Uh uh," Gauron said. "No cheating. Let's consider voice activation Sousuke."

"This could still be all a bluff," the Ainur said.

Grey and Batiste came into the room then and shook their head.

"No sign of a bomb," Grey said. "But there are vats upon vats of...something. Some have been tampered with and I think that gives us our answer for why there's no one moving above us."

She glanced through narrowed eyes at Gauron who chuckled.

"I was trying to insure our privacy," he said with a snicker. "I'm glad you weren't early, apparently it broke down only about fifteen minutes before you arrived. Of course, with most of the city focused on other things, I don't think anybody noticed much."

"Bastard," Batiste snapped bitterly as he pushed forward toward Gauron where Sousuke was again holding his pistol on the lump's head.

"We can't kill hi-" Grey started to say.

A shot rang out as Batiste shuddered, the bullet passing through the man's body and into Gauron's smiling face. The older Mithril mercenary shuddered and crumpled over Gauron's body, looking surprised.

Beside him, Sousuke and Grey looked up to see a man standing at the entry balcony leveling an assault rifle their way. Batiste, stumbling in pain ducked around behind cover even as Grey and Sousuke did, and the assault rifle obliterated Gauron's form.

For a brief moment the heart monitor dropped to a long, constant tone before picking up again, though erratic and weak.

"The hell!" Grey shouted. "He survived that?"

"No," Batiste growled. "That's me. Hurry up and get this stuff blown to hell!"

"Are you down there Kashim?" a young male voice called out. "Are you still the little boy I helped out of the sand? Or have you learned what it is to really be a man and to survive in this world?"

"Another friend of yours, Sergeant Sagara?" Grey asked.

"I believe so," Sousuke said with a flicker of discomfort at the thought of Zaid here, alive and working with Gauron.

He glanced from behind his cover and ducked as a bullet smacked against the ground and Zaid fell back to the hallway.

"He's retreating," Sousuke said.

"Batiste, can you last?" Grey demanded.

"I'm not done yet," he said, in a wheezing tone that didn't carry with it a real spoken answer.

"I'll take your friend," Grey told Sousuke. "You do something about the nerve gas."

"Be careful, Zaid is very good," the Ainur warned.

"So am I," Gray said.

* * *

Elsewhere, pilots briefly received a confirmation tone which then cut off. Messages were exchanged and decisions were made as several mega tankers came closer to land and their cargo powered up.

And another such signal reached a device, only to be cut off before it could finish.

* * *

"We've got some civilian ocean traffic coming in to Kyushu," a clerk noted to the officer with him. "Looks like cargo-ships that were planning on docking at Tokyo until the late unpleasantness. They've keeping station in the outer waters until we took Kyushu."

"It's been a week since Japan was invaded," the officer said in an incredulous fashion. "Why didn't they go somewhere else?"

"Fuel, I suspect sir," the clerk noted. "They seem to have only a little of it."

"Damn stupid civilians," the officer responded. "Give them clearance to get to dock and get fueled up. And find out what they're carrying."

The last was added almost as an afterthought.

* * *

Ranma looked down to where Naiki was, it looked like, dancing with the Kraken girl. There was nothing sexual about it, which was a relief after the whole situation with Eija and her...trinity was probably the best term.

Mao was still under sedation in Atlantis and Ranma had one more talk to give regarding secrets and why to help keep them. Granted, she wasn't sure she wouldn't have done the same thing in Naiki's shoes, but it still needed to be discussed.

The exorcist leaped down toward the beach and started walking across to where the two girls were pretty much just playing around, when a sudden flare of chi out in the ocean attracted her attention. And the sudden change in attitude with Lusca and Naiki said that both of them felt it too.

All three of them directed their eyes out towards the ships crossing the waters and a small fleet of four massive cargo freighters that were moving in tandem.

"Oh hell no," Ranma said, remembering the last time they had seen one of those cargo ships producing so much chi.

"Oh please not another of those things," Naiki said.

"What things?" Lusca asked.

And then the first Behemoth started to rip out of the ship.

* * *

"There's a memory I'm taking from you," a woman said before blinking and shaking her head. "I mean me."

She was tall and slender, with long legs and hair braided into eight tails coming down out of her head. She was sitting in and among several trees growing out of slight rises in the ground at her feet. It was a veritable forest of ordered trees.

"Because if you...I have this memory for too long," she said. "It'll become the only thing about you...me...and you'll...hurt people...but you'll need it so you can stop it from happening again."

She grimaced and cricked her head.

"If you escape or get rescued, that is," she sighed. "You see more of the memory the more serious it gets and you'll know how to take each level of bind off so you can protect people from this happening again."

* * *

"I got you!" Lusca shouted cheerfully as she tackled one of the little children she'd been chasing in circles through the tide and around the beach.

"We got you!" several other children shouted before piling on the teenager.

They were dressed in simple white tunics of a Nordic design as they played around the lonely island on which they now settled. They weren't human, not the youngest generation at any rate. And that was why they had come out here, to escape the eyes of humans that wouldn't know what to think of these things.

Most of the children appeared at least a little bit strange and fishy, and some even had tentacles growing out of their backs. Lusca wasn't the only sea Demon or God whose mixing with humans would had added to their development though this particular group was heavily related to her.

For the moment, they were an unnamed oddity. Only a handful of colonies all over in hidden places. Some would eventually disturb a young man in New England in the late nineteenth century. But none descended from this group of families.

An old, ancient even, woman shuffled out and smiled at the laughing and joking children.

"Mother, shouldn't you be studying?" she asked in a gentle tone.

"Oh don't worry, Sigrun," Lusca said with a giggle as the younger kids tickled her viciously. "I've done this lots of times before. I've never failed the test. I'm sure of it."

"How can you be sure without your memories, mother?" Sigrun asked with a smile.

"Oh, but we want to play with Great-grandma Lusca!" the kids said in tandem.

"How disgusting," a loud booming voice called out from the waves.

Instantly, the kids were pulling back up the beach with Lusca standing between them and the water, the old woman moving in front of the younger and calling forth her own vitae.

A tall, bearded form slipped out of the water and up to stand head and shoulders, towering over the teenaged form of Lusca and those behind her.

"What do you want here, Poseidon?" Lusca demanded angrily.

The children ran further up the into the island as several other people ran forward. Hundreds, humans, half-Demons, little sea spawn like the children. Almost all of them wielding power in some way, magicians, psychics and the like.

"I've come to deal with a blight on the waves," Poseidon said glaring down at her. "You shouldn't have let your guard down Kraken. The sea is going to belong to me completely from this point on. No more sharing with such inferior creatures as you."

"Oh please, are you trying to be funny?" she asked in return, scoffing. "You can't kill me. The Doublet System would kill one of you Gods, for all you know, maybe you."

"There are thousands of Gods, Lusca," Poseidon said. "What's the chance that you're actually connected to me?"

Lusca frowned nervously a moment and then crossed her arms and laughed.

"But you don't know," she said. "So there's no way you're going to do it. So that makes you doubly a coward."

"What?" Poseidon demanded. "You're calling me a coward?"

"Yes," she responded. "I'm barely fifteen years into this life, I don't have enough power to shake a tree and you had to know it. So instead of waiting for me to grow up and come into my full power in two years, you're coming after me now. And then you can't even bring yourself to do it because you might die."

She laughed in a superior tone.

"So get out of here now," she declared. "This is my island. You can't do anything here! So don't pretend otherwise."

Poseidon's answer to Lusca's smug look was a summoned wave of water smashing her into the nearest tree. She was shaking her head clear when something stabbed into her arms and held her there against the tree. Looking up she saw Poseidon's trident stabbed through her now bleeding arms and nailing her against the tree.

"What are you...WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" she demanded.

Poseidon turned away from her without responding as the collected warriors charged forward to defend Lusca from her attacker. The outcome was terribly obvious to a part of Lusca even as she stared in shock and denial when the first spray of blood splashed across her face.

"No! No!" she called out. "Stop! Stop! Don't do that! I'm sorry! It's not funny! It's not funny!"

She cried out, pulling against the trident spearing her to the tree as she watched the slaughter continue and not end with the warriors who were trained in fighting Gods and other monsters. Nor did it end with the adults who were at least somewhat able to defend themselves.

No it didn't end until the last two sentient beings on the island were Lusca and Poseidon and she was hanging from the tree, voice gone and tears dry. Weak and tired from the blood loss.

She did nothing but fall to her knees as the trident was removed from the tree and her arms. All of her energy was gone, drained away. And then the body of one of the children she had just been playing with was dropped in front of her.

"Why," she asked quietly.

"This is my ocean," Poseidon told her. "And the Kraken who brooks no rivals is not welcome."

"You still can't kill me," Lusca said. "I'll have my power soon and I'll pay this back! I'll find someway to make you pay. I'll make a prison and trap you for eternity! You will PAY!"

"I do like that last idea," Poseidon said, not frowning. "I think I'll remove this entire corrupt, tainted island while I'm at it."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Lusca growled.

"What you just said," Poseidon noted humorlessly. "Trap you for eternity. Is this funny now?"

"No," Lusca said narrowly as Poseidon drew the circles around her body, weak for blood loss and healing to slow to be able to do anything about it. "This is not..."

* * *

"...funny in the least tiniest bit!"

Ranma and Naiki watched as the red marks on Lusca's face flared into life, the girl's body started shifting and growing.

"Oh crap!" Naiki said. "Mom!"

"I don't think we can stop her," Ranma said as Lusca had already grown to four times her normal size and kept growing. "Besides, if you remember right, we're going to need her."

Lusca dived forward and vanished into the water.

* * *

One of the Behemoths was wading through the waves toward the island, three others flanking it, when the water ahead of it exploded upward and the pilot with in found himself staring at the tooth filled maw of something that looked like it belonged in a horror movie.

It was easily as tall as the Behemoth, if much more slender, with four draconic legs, two of which were more like long arms, holding up a reptilian body and draconic head out of which eight tentacles grow with a thick webbing between them, like some sort of monstrous frill.

Tentacles with razor-tipped hooks slipping out of the suckers lashed outward around his vehicle and crushed downward even as he tried to raise his lambda driver. The tentacles wrapped around the head of the creature and just about swallowed the bulk of the first Behemoth. Underneath the frill, along the neck of the creature, a row of eyes opened one by one to watch what was going on as it attacked the thing in front of it.

The pilot inside screamed aloud in his cockpit as he tried to train the weapons of the monstrous robot on his attacker, drawing a line of blood across what may have been a shoulder, but doing little more than minor annoyance through the aura.

The other three behemoths tried to ignore the monster as it seemed to focus on the first of them. They were intent on their mission, which was to reach the island and cause as much damage as possible. The heavy cannons in the head were already strafing across the waters at everything that could be targeted. A pair of destroyers exploded into gouts of fire under the attack, followed immediately by a transport loaded mostly with civilians that had been arriving to start on repairing the damage the battle had done.

Naval cannons flashed out, shells exploding against the lambda driver induced chi-fields. But that didn't stop them. And soon hastily called in jets slipped by sending missiles into the robots, which exploded with shattering force on the things.

Huge tentacles ripped out of the water like a wall that was as tall as the Behemoths were, and lashed out to grab at the giant robots, hoping to hold them in place so that they couldn't advance on the island.

"Thorns!" one of the pilots shouted. "Remember the footage."

The lambda driver boosted auras shifted into the sharp forms of terrible spikes which tried to tear at the tentacles that reached out to grab them.

The monster itself yelped and leaped back, bleeding from several relatively small wounds as the visibly mauled Behemoth sent it back. The frill of tentacles fell back, covering the row of eyes on its neck.

As the creature roared out wordlessly, a blast of red, raw pishouge tore out of the creature as if it was breathing crimson, bloody fire and slammed into the already damaged Behemoth as it pulled its thorns back and tried to form a shield again.

The blast of energy ripped the machines right arm clean off even as the other Behemoths were approaching the monster's form and drawing their huge swords.

Neither of the first two noticed as two human sized swords leaped out to land on the swords, which extended outside the clumsily shaped lambda driver fields and thus did not benefit from their protection.

The pilots of those two Behemoths looked in confusion and shock as their swords were sliced apart length by length, approaching ever closer to the hand. Focusing in, they saw flickers of movement from Naiki and Ranma, one on each robot, and the two machines tried to turn their guns on the two martial artists.

Which earned them apparently special attention from the monster which jumped between them and lashed out with its own tentacles to grip the head and start crushing until the cannons tore gaping holes in the tentacles at a cost of their own destruction.

The most severely damaged of the Behemoths limped into position facing the monster which was apparently distracted by the pain of its wounds, and started blasting into the creature with its own cannons, drawing a line up the things body.

Naiki leaped over to the shoulder of the tentacle monster and reared back her hands.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" she shouted, angrily pushing forward.

The line of automatic cannon shells suddenly reversed back towards the Behemoth tearing it into pieces as its damaged lambda driver failed to raise a field to compete with the attack.

The fourth behemoth was circling around slowly behind the monster, raising a massive sword wrapped in lambda-driver created chi.

Lightning bolts rained down on top of it, one after another, smashing into the chi-aura and weakening it, overbearing it, each time. Electricity coursed into the robot a little more each time, slagging new circuits and making the thing harder and harder to control.

Ranma looked from her position on the remaining hilt of one of the massive swords and saw Deimosu along with Urd, Raiden and Thor standing on the nearby shore and concentrating despite all three of the older Immortals having serious injuries still to deal with.

The cruise missile from behind finished off that fourth Behemoth in a high explosive flash as Ranma turned toward the robot whose weapon she was standing on and took a deep breath before diving through the field, pushing it aside with her own chi as she move further down, closer to the actual AS.

More Demons, Gods and Ainur appeared on the shores wielding various different powers to rain down on the remaining two Behemoths even while they struggled with the tentacles of the monster around them until they tried to drive it off with thorns again.

Naiki gripped tightly to a ridge of the creature she was standing on as it jumped away before the thorns could stab her deeply again.

The thorns only made it easier for Ranma to reach the cockpit entry and, now underneath the aura of protection, smash through into it and finding the pilot beneath. The shocked man looked up into the redheaded form of the exorcist that had just ripped his door off and then he saw what looked like a single fist coming his way and his skull caved in.

Jumping away as the Behemoth fell backward, Ranma watched as the last monster AS caved in under a barrage of magic and conventional power.

As the the Behemoths were destroyed, attention was cautiously turned toward the massive tentacle monster still vaguely glowing red and standing in the middle of the surf, looking around frantically, tentacles twitching.

"Hey! They're gone! Calm down," Naiki shouted.

The creature hesitated and seemed to look around itself for whoever had just said that, not thinking that perhaps the speaker was on the body already.

The simple, curious gesture was enough for the anger and fear to lose their hold on the creature and it visibly started to shrink down. Naiki leaped off and came to the shrinking creature's side as it became obvious that the wounds she'd received weren't going to just vanish.

* * *

"And after you don't need it, you can forget again."

* * *

Lusca blinked as she found herself in the water and a bit confused. She'd just been fighting something. She wasn't exactly sure why, it just hadn't been funny, that's all she knew. There was an odd sensation that was immediately answered as she noticed a red trail working out away from her through the water.

"Oh I got hurt, right," she said with a frown.

Then Naiki was swimming up to her side and grabbing hold. The next moment they were teleporting away and Lusca found herself in the medical tent, which didn't make much sense since she wasn't on duty at the moment.

"Hey!" Naiki shouted. "I need someone to come help me here! Someone that knows Demon anatomy."

Lusca blushed then as she realized that Naiki was holding her gently and firmly.

"Did you just save me from the monsters?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah," Naiki said casually. "Where's a doctor?"

"SQUEEE!" Lusca declared loudly and holding Naiki reciprocally tightly. "So brave!"

Naiki almost fell over then as Lusca altered the weight balance she was working with.

"Whoa! Wait until you're not bleeding!" Naiki pleaded. "Bullet holes, Lusca! Plural!"

* * *

Elizabeth Weir walked into the room as the bomb in question was sitting in the gate room, and the vast collection of seal-connections that Atlantis had available to reach many of the shards in Earth's cosmology. Some were copies of those that Earth had, but most were deeper shards, shards that were on the edges of Earth's cosmology.

"Is that it?" she asked.

"Yes," McKay said in serious tone of voice. "That's the bomb Kavanagh swears he didn't bring in."

"And why isn't it already gone?" Elizabeth asked.

"Because I tend to think that when the apocalyptic madman sets a bomb to blow up a city at the time of his death," Rodney says, "he doesn't just assume radio signals will make it past dimensional barriers."

"If you think it might be booby-trapped then why move it at all?" Elizabeth asked.

"I've already determined that it's not going to go off just by moving it around," McKay said. "What I'm concerned with is whether it will go boom if we try to move it from one dimension to another. Kavanagh is an idiot but he's plenty smart enough to be able to craft a little thing that goes 'zot' when a dimensional border is crossed."

"It goes 'zot', we go boom," Weir noted.

"Exactly," McKay said. "I figure this bomb is probably set to explode if we either try to take it apart or to send it away."

Weir moved toward the window and looked out into the vast ocean surrounding the city.

"Can you prove that?" she asked.

"I'm working on that," Rodney said firmly.

"You're aware there may be another bomb in Tokyo?" Weir said. "It could just be here to make us waste our time."

"I know that," McKay snapped. "I also know that Shepard and everybody else are currently in Tokyo, and have been for the last few hours. I also know that it's also a war zone. But until I have proof otherwise, I'm going to say the crazy guy who wanted a nuclear pyre on death planned on using us as the detonation trigger."

Weir stared at him for a moment and he calmed down slightly.

"Sorry," he said, nervously. "I'm under a bit of pressure."

"Apology accepted," Dr. Weir said before glancing up to see Kaname Chidori, Eija Satomi, Kyoko Tokiwa and another girl on the balcony at the window looking out.

Ostensibly, they were obviously there to look out at the view, but they could have gotten that anywhere. Most likely they were there to see how their bomb warning was going.

"Miss Chidori," Weir said. "I believe we had word that you're expected to meet with Major Carter and Captain Testarossa, shouldn't you be getting to that?"

"I'm on my way, Ma'am," she said quickly. "We were just wondering..."

"Yes, the bomb thing is going well," Rodney said. "Now you have your project, I have mine, if you'll excuse me I think I have to figure out how to determine if this thing is booby trapped without doing anything that will trigger a booby trap."

"Why not just throw it off the side of the world?" the fourth girl asked.

Weir and McKay both paused for a moment.

"Mizuki, the world isn't flat," Kaname noted.

"Actually, this one is," McKay said moving quickly to the balcony and looking out toward the horizon.

"Won't the gravity just pull it up against the bottom of the world?" Weir asked.

"Yeah, but that's like a mile thick rock underneath the ocean," McKay said. "I don't think we'll have to worry about any radiation down there. Wire it to explode so that it's not just sitting around waiting to pop back up again...we should be clear."

"Get to it," Weir said. "Quickly. Miss Chidori, I think you need to be going. We'll open a gate as soon as this device..." she indicated the bomb, "...is out of the room. Should make things easier for you."

"Thanks," Kaname said,

* * *

Sousuke listened to the distant sound of gunfire and resisted the urge to go to it. He had his orders, it it involved getting rid of these chemical weapons.

_Any suggestions?_ he asked.

_I believe I can help,_ Eija said. _I'll be there shortly._

_Eija, the area is very dangerous and..._

_You have an injured man who's continued life will keep nuclear devices from going off,_ Eija said.

_Affirmative,_ Sousuke said. _What is the status on the radiation?_

_I'm at the American place,_ Kaname said. _Tessa and I are working on it with them. But it's going to be a little bit. The Immortals we were gathering got caught up in a fight on Kyushu._

_We have four hours,_ Sousuke noted idly. _It shouldn't be a problem._

_Yeah, four hours to figure out how to push radiation out of the atmosphere without electrocuting anybody below it,_ Kaname noted.

Suddenly, Eija's presence felt much closer and Sousuke knew she was in the building even before she told him.

_I'm here,_ she said. _And now, I think we might seal that room. I shall walk you through it._

* * *

Batiste watched as Sousuke darted into the room full of vats that they had discovered while Grey chased after the young man that had just fired on them. That left him behind to pretty much live as long as possible to keep the rigged heart monitor from sending the message of destruction.

Which had him thinking.

It should have been set up so that when the guy died, it stopped transmitting. If that had been the case, they would have all died from the nerve gas and a couple other bombs would have gone off.

Grunting and clutching at the bullet wound he'd taken, Batiste turned around to start examining the machine in front of him. If he could find the transmitter and take it apart, they wouldn't need to worry about the bombs anymore.

He almost jumped when a hand clapped on his shoulder and turned, with gun ready to see one of Sousuke's girlfriends there at his side.

"Where the hell did you come from?" he demanded.

And she finished stepping out of the pool of blood beside him.

"I'm sorry," she said apologetically. "I tend to surprise people."

She bowed momentarily and started looking to his injury.

"Let me see what I can do about this," she said politely. "Keep doing what you are doing, I shall not interfere."

* * *

Zaid jumped out into the street and ducked around a wall, aiming his rifle at the doorway, waiting for Grey to follow his steps.

He was surprised at the sound of feet on the roof above him and glanced up just in time to see her aiming her submachine gun down into the alleyway.

Barely dodging out of the way and around another corner he heard her land on the building he was leaning against and cursed. Buildings put close together were not uncommon in his home, but he'd spent more of his time hunting and fighting in the desert hills of Helmjastan. This woman apparently knew urban warfare much better than he did.

He dashed out, keeping tight against the building so that she couldn't easily target down at him while he tried to move as quietly as possible, looking for a building that had a distance too wide for her jump across.

The scrabbling of footsteps brought him to look in time to duck underneath another stream of bullets, though one still scratched a line down his shoulder. He returned fire with his rifle, but she was already almost completely behind cover when he did so.

Her choice of weapon was also better suited to an urban confrontation, not requiring as much to get in line as his rifle did. Swinging it back around his back, he retrieved a pistol and waited for her to show herself again.

Grey came from a different direction than he'd expected, popping out of a different split between two buildings and directing her submachine gun towards where Zaid had stationed himself, looking for cover.

He turned quickly and fired just about the same time she did, three slugs slashing out, one cutting into and through her stomach even as her own bullets raked across his torso.

Both fell back away from each other, grunting with the pain that pounded through the armor each was wearing. They each crawled into cover before looking for the next shot. They were catching their breath, but in that time, they each loss track of the other.

Zaid, turned around a corner and froze, seeing a person standing there in the shadows that looked somewhat familiar.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Someone that can give you a way to survive," the man said with a smile.

It was several minutes of fruitless stalking before Grey decided that the man had gotten away. Slipping back into the shadows she headed back for the others as quickly as possible.

* * *

Eija scanned the room about her, looking for the spirit, expecting him to be around somewhere, watching and waiting for his final trick to be played. Maybe hoping to play a few more as a ghost.

"Almost got this disarmed," her patient said beside her. "And then we should be safe to..."

The reflection of a digital display off the metallic floor suddenly appeared, catching Batiste's eye as he clipped the last wire.

"Is something the mat..."

Eija found herself pushed roughly back as the bed containing Gauron's body was twisted on its side between her and Batiste.

* * *

Sousuke watched with something close to amazement as the entire room simply vanished leaving empty air where it had been, only leaving behind what appeared to be a small shell or a large bullet.

And then the building rocked with an explosion as he felt Eija's surprise and pain pour through the link he now had with her.

_Eija!_ Kaname's voice called out along with his as he rushed back into the garden to find a blackened mess, Batiste's corpse thrown into one far wall.

Kaname appeared then out of a burst of circular, liquid energy and, like Sousuke, zeroed in on Eija's position. She was bruised, battered and unconscious, but judging by the area of untouched wall and floor around her, had managed to raise a mana-shield quickly enough to withstand the bulk of the explosion.

"Well, isn't this familiar," Kaname said as she came to Eija's side, clearly trying to lighten the mood as her eyes flared red and she took in Eija's condition. "She's going to be okay, I don't think she's in danger."

"Good," Sousuke said with relief before he moved to check Batiste's body. "He took the full brunt of the explosion, must have thrown himself on it."

He frowned and looked toward the center of the explosion darkly. This device hadn't been nearly as powerful as the last one. Was it truly designed to kill him, or just make him suffer the death of others?

"What the hell was that?" Grey demanded as she came into the area. She turned and saw Kaname and Eija and then Batiste. "Oh no! Batiste, what happened?"

"I think he may have been trying to disarm the readout," Sousuke said grimly.

"You mean...the signal went out?" Grey asked silently.

"It may have," the Ainur noted.

"I'm taking Eija back to Atlantis," Kaname said quickly.

"We should all go," Grey said. "Now, our mission here is over."

* * *

"Kaname, back to Major Carter!" Mara said as they appeared in Atlantis.

"But..." Kaname started to protest.

"We've got Belldandy and a couple others coming in for Eija," Mara said quickly. "They're already looking over Lusca in there, so they're ready. She'll be fine."

"Did the bomb?" Kaname started to ask quietly.

"The bomb that was here was detonated under Atlantis with no problem," Mara said.

"What happened with the Tokyo bomb?" Grey asked desperately.

"I was going to ask you that!" Mara said quickly, snapping her head around.

"We're not sure," Grey answered. "We think Batiste made an uninstructed attempt to disarm the heart monitor. Did the bomb go off in Tokyo?"

"No," Mara said. "Not Tokyo."

"But it did go off," Kaname said weakly.

* * *

Nabiki stared across the horizon toward the other side of Okinawa with a bleak horror at the sight of the rising mushroom cloud.

"Good heavens," she whispered. "That's the refugee settlements."

People from China, Southeast Asia, and recently mainland Japan. The majority of them had been placed on that side of the island. For the past ten years, it was the main place on Okinawa for refugees of any type to stay long or short term.

"Aunt Nabiki," Kimiko said quietly. "What's that mean?"

"It means something bad happened," Nabiki said, holding the hands of her nieces and nephews tightly and staring out in that direction.

* * *

Author Notes

* * *

I figure, if you didn't hate me for Shichimu or Zeus, then you probably won't hate me for this

on the other hand, I'm guessing some people want to change their vote on the which villain do you hate most poll on my deviant art account.


	48. Another Day of Battle Sets

Hours before Gauron's deliveries were dealt with successfully or otherwise and soon after the meeting between the leaders had been made, other events were taking place.

"What do you mean you're not letting me go!" Urd snapped angrily into Athena's face. "Or Belldandy? Skuld is our sister!"

The white-haired Goddess showed more than a few signs that she had been in the battle, including some freshly healed scars that hadn't faded it.

If they continued fading. Urd was half-Demon, after all, and though she'd never shown signs of a desire to ruin her "perfect" skin in the past, some Demons were strangely attracted to "artful" scars.

The Goddess shook her head and decided it must have been some sort of upbringing, since the Demons born in Asgard didn't show as much of that.

"You're needed," Athena said. "This project of the Ainur's feels like something necessary. I am very disturbed by the fallout coming out of Russia. It should have been contained with the missiles."

"Perhaps at least I could go," Belldandy suggested hopefully.

"Again, you are necessary here, Belldandy," Athena said. "Healthy healers are still necessary. And I think she should be prepared to help Mara as well."

"So, we're just supposed to trust Skuld's safety to a bunch of strangers?" Urd demanded angrily. "Granted, they're strangers with a good rep, but they're still not us."

"Not entirely," Athena said with a knowing smile, she glanced toward the side. "Miss Fujimi and your husband, are also not being allowed to go, but they have managed to do us a bit of a favor."

Belldandy turned to look and see Chihiro there, looking just as dissatisfied as Urd and Belldandy did. She was leaning against the door frame as Keiichi came in ahead of a somewhat altered looking Banpei.

"Banpei?" Urd said. "You're sending that robot into a war-zone to find Skuld? No offense, Banpei, you're good and all, but you stand out a little bit and you'll run out of power in a...wait a minute."

"We've worked on polishing Skuld's energy producing systems," Keiichi said going up to Belldandy and giving Athena a look that said he also wished he was going. "We made a lot more efficient. He'll be able to last a bit longer now and he'll be able to put more energy into his actions now."

His arms were on Belldandy's as he looked back toward the robot and Chihiro there.

"And we added some other stuff too," Chihiro said. "Burrowed somewhat from what Testarossa had us put into the Sciroccos."

"There's something else besides," another voice said as two figures stepped into the doorway.

* * *

Shepard and his company immediately ducked for cover as they arrived in Tokyo and found themselves within sound of a battle of some kind.

"The hell?" he demanded, glancing toward the sound from behind cover and catching flashes of blue mana in the distance.

"I believe we were briefed that the Gods in control of Tokyo had take to fighting each other," Teyla noted quietly.

"I guess so," Ronan said shrugging the situation aside. "So, where's the fun?"

"There's an underground entrance with a handful of guards," Teyla said. "They'll be hard to sneak up on given that they're just as worried about the fighting going on as we were. However, they've managed to hide the presence of either chi or mana."

"With a bunch of crazy, would be evil-overlords rampaging around on top of them?" Ronan asked. "How surprising is that."

"Yeah, our beacon is coming from in there too," Lorne said.

"All right then," Shepard said, looking toward Lorne and the other soldiers. "Let's go then."

Breaking cover, Shepard and his team darted across the street in small numbers, ones and twos, scattering about the identified location.

Someone was scene and a blast of automatic fire stenciled its way through the late afternoon.

"Damn it," Shepard said over the radio. "I was hoping that would go easier. So the little girl with the dizzy blast...6-3-4 right."

"I think you were the one that warned to keep experimenting down to a minimum, Major," Lorne responded. "We have flashbangs."

Shepard turned to Teyla as bullets splanged against his cover for no better reason than to let him know that Kolya's thugs knew where he was.

"I finally get superpowers and I have to be reasonable and say 'don't use them until you know how'," he said, rolling his eyes.

Teyla smirked briefly and nodded at him.

"Well this is why you have a trained psychic on hand, isn't it?" Teyla asked as she ran through a sequence of numbers. "I am ready."

"Everybody, flashbang on three, Teyla guides them in," he summarized. "And then Ronan leads the way. One, two..."

The guards watched inexplicably as half a dozen flashbangs shifted unerringly into the mouth of their exit. One of them reached down to try and grab for one of the items, when all six erupted into a blast of sound and light.

After that they were inside.

This, of course, was what was supposed to happen and everybody realized it.

* * *

Skuld laughed in triumph as she finished the third of the little robots and wiped at her forehead. She'd had to take a few shortcuts for the programming, but they only really had two functions right now: help her make more of them and incapacitate any threats, preferably non-lethally.

She could hear the efforts being made to tear into her force field and knew that it was going to come down pretty soon, so she turned back to the six-legged thing that bore a passing resemblance to one of her greatest nuisances.

And she switched it on.

"All right," she said, standing up. "Everybody list..."

Skuld stopped as she turned around behind her and saw that there were a lot more of the six-legged robots than the two she'd already made plus the one she'd just finished. She counted about thirty in easy view, and there were holes in the wall that implied some had left the area.

"Uhhh..." she said nervously as she watched the things progressively tearing apart the room she was in. "You're not supposed to make so many of yourself..."

They didn't respond, which was hardly surprising given how she hadn't had time to really give them a true AI like Banpei's.

"Hey! Stop that!" Skuld shouted releasing a small burst of mana directed one of the robots and causing it to fall apart almost instantly.

The remaining members of the swarm turned about to regard Skuld.

"Incapacitate threat?" Skuld asked.

Her mind cast backwards to something Chihiro had said.

"All the brilliance of Einstein and Tesla combined, and the forethought of a monkey."

* * *

"It looks like the shock generated by whatever she did is lessening," one of the guards said. "These psychics we brought with..."

And Skuld burst out of the supposedly electro-sealed door and started running pell mell for the exit.

Kolya was about to order someone to stop her in a casual tone when the small swarm of insect like robots swarmed out of the room after her.

"Go! Go!" Kolya shouted, firing at the little mechanical monsters and unwittingly marking himself as a threat.

He had a minor thought, a bit later than would have been useful, as corollary to one of the "Evil Overlord Lists" he'd heard while on Earth.

When locking someone in the storeroom, make sure it's not MacGyver. Make damn sure it's not a mad scientist.

He wasn't sure who MacGyver was but figured it was a folk hero of some sort. But it was the second part that seemed to apply now.

* * *

Simmons and the rest of Amalgam's assault unit came in behind Shepard's. They had a pair of exorcists with them to shape a gate, but such were still human and could do things as swiftly as the Ainur now could.

It was also a rather noisy affair, speaking in terms of power use.

So, as Simmons, Maybourne and their unit slipped into the pre-breached location after Shepard's unit, their arrival was noted by several Gods within the area.

* * *

Skuld turned a corner, breathing a sigh of relief as she realized it seemed to be a long empty corridor.

"Okay..." Skuld said. "I screwed up a little bit. This can still be dealt with."

The Goddess of the Future blew a strand of pink hair out of her face and leaned against a wall. She was out of that room now and out where she had better access to Yggdrasil and other things.

Reaching out her hand, her long handled red hammer was just there. It wasn't called the Mjolnir Mk 2 for no reason, after all. Reaching out with the next hand she found herself a handful of Skuld bombs.

"All right, Now" she said with initial confidence before slumping again. "Now this still isn't going to help me much against insane, reproducing spider-bots."

"Hey, you're the prisoner!" someone shouted behind her. "What are you doing out..."

And he blinked as a handful of knobby things flew out toward him. He blinked for a moment, wondering what the things were supposed to be. And then they burst into loud smoke in his face, knocking him backward.

A spray of bullets lashed out high over her head causing her to duck underneath even as she lashed out with her hammer and slammed it into the man's head so that he collapsed unconscious to the floor. Taking a breath, she retracted the hammer's handle to it's traveling size and tried to choose a direction to go.

The mechanical clicking sound caused her to freeze for a moment before a hole started opening up.

Skuld's eyes widened nervously as she started to runaway and then turned around to grab the legs of the soldier that had just tried to shoot her and started lugging him back with her.

"Let's use the robots from that old movie, nothing could go wrong with that," Skuld said to herself. "And let's make them help make more, easy."

Hearing voices and steps coming down from one direction, she immediately took the man with her and turned down another hallway, watching the first of the runaway robots starting to come into the hall with her.

She stumbled into a wide chamber. Until she tripped over a wire and the sound of small explosions tore through the small room. A wide sheet of metal jury-rigged into portcullis slammed downward heavily slicing into and through the legs of the man she was trying to save.

Behind her the same tripwire triggered a similar jury-rigged trap there sealing her into the little room.

The man she'd been dragging woke up screaming and moved to a sitting up position, only to be shot through the head by a bullet just moments after a little red dot appeared on his back.

Staying exactly where she'd fallen, Skuld immediately looked around the room for similar red dots and sweated nervously as she easily found another twenty in easy view with moving her head at all.

"Oh...no," she whispered.

* * *

"What the hell are these things?" Shepard asked, firing into the handful of little robots in the hallway ahead of him. "Where were those gunshots?"

"Over here, Shepard," Ronan said, pointing toward what was very clearly an only recently placed obstacle.

Especially given the severed legs.

He glanced over toward Teyla who nodded.

"There's someone behind there, extremely terrified..." she blinked suddenly, ignoring the way Ronan smirked and gestured to the severed legs at her comment of someone extremely terrified. "I think it is the girl we're here to save."

"Hey, who's in there?" Ronan shouted banging on the door.

"Don't hit the door!" a girl's voice obscured by the thickness of the door. "There are laser pointers everywhere in here!"

"Booby traps, great," Shepard said. "At least we don't have a rising tide or something."

The sound of more gunfire was heard then.

"Umm, Major," Lorne said, glancing around a corner. "You know those little robots you blew up?"

"Yeah?" Shepard asked.

"Well, there's more of them," Lorne said. "A lot more."

Next to him another of the marines was firing into the approaching mass of robots. Turning around the corner to look, Shepard swallowed. Especially as further down the hallway he saw a mercenary, probably one of Kolya's disappear under a small wave of the things.

"Okay, some get me Tom Selleck on the line," Shepard demanded.

Behind him, Teyla and Ronan were examining the door.

"I'm sorry!" Skuld's voice whined from inside her trap.

Shepard took a steadying breath and thought about the "basic" use of just sending a burst of raw chi down the hallway, tearing through the first ranks of the advancing robots. It wasn't exactly the most tireless thing he could think of.

Experiments and experience between the Invasion day and this morning's and early afternoon's attack on Kyushu said that chi was best used to enhance already existing abilities. Shields and blasts were less efficient.

"Okay, so more Bruce Willis, less X-Men until later," he muttered. "How's the door coming."

"There's charges here," Ronan said. "If we go in after her, something goes boom and probably triggers a handful of traps inside."

"We've got company coming," Teyla shouted. "More people behind us, and I think I felt Kolya further in."

"Everything just keeps getting better," Shepard said as he nodded toward Lorne and both turned about the corner to fire into the mass.

Strangely enough each of the bullets struck a different robot in the best possible spot and not a bullet was wasted.

"Scratch Bruce Willis, Major," Lorne said. "Looks like we're somewhere between Christopher Bale and John Woo."

* * *

Kolya cursed to himself as the radio on his belt started cackling, one of his traps had been triggered. He was listening in on the banter with Shepard and Miss Wodendottir as it happened.

He'd wanted to do this in the location he had prepared specially for this confrontation. Spent weeks on it, months even, even before Gauron made his offer. It was perfect, clean, sterile and had been lined with every ward, circle, trap and security feature he could think of and afford to steal or purchase.

It had been the perfect trap to, if not kill Shepard, at the very least destroy his confidence and trust in himself.

Instead he was in an underground complex that was either subway or sewer, he bet the former due to the lack of water in most places. He was in the middle of occupied territory that had just turned into an out and out war-zone of competing barbarians with superpowers. His traps had been built over a week with what he'd had on hand.

And now his jury-rigged lair was filled with an unknown number of rather aggressive spider-things.

Still, he couldn't let it show that things were going a little bit unexpected.

"Hello, Major Shepard," he said casually. "I see you've found my erstwhile guest. Now, I had originally intended someone else to be in there, but she'll do."

"Kolya!" Shepard shouted, and the man smiled as he imagined the man looking for the intercom. "This isn't like you. You've never taken uninvolved civilians hostage before like this."

"I can assure you, Major Shepard," he said. "That I was probably the best option she had. So I'm sorry it's her in there, but she's the one that didn't stay in her nice safe cell for the whole thing."

He heard a clattering sound and didn't bother to look as one of his shoulders fired on the appearing mechanical bug.

"Now if only Amalgam's people are just as predictable," he commented.

Blinking he watched as his exorcists started cautiously running past some of the mechanical bugs and noted the robots weren't bothering them.

"Something you did to hide yourself?" he asked.

"They don't attack you if you don't attack them," one of the mystics said.

"Then why did they attack the girl?" he asked.

"Teenaged temper tantrum?" someone wondered with a shrug.

"All right, make sure you two at least don't threaten them until you can find a way to turn them all off," Kolya instructed the psychics.

* * *

Simmons and Mayborne, at the head of their team, looked at the solid metal sheet or slab that had apparently fallen to cover the direct path in the last few minutes and then he glanced through one of the open hallways.

"Looks like we're going in alternate directions," he said idly. "Mayborne, that way."

"It might be better if I stay with you sir," the short, pudgy man said in an idle tone.

"I'm sure you would feel better," Simmons said. "Head that way anyway."

"As you wish, sir," the man said, clearly disappointed.

Mayborne moved his unit further down the hall cautiously, eyes looking for any sign of traps or tricks. Amalgam's soldiers were in front of him, doing their normal thing. And something caught his eye.

"Hey, don't forget to check those corners," he said. "Don't want to face some sort of demonic spider or something."

"Right," the soldier said, taking a tight turn around a piece of debris and tripping the wire there.

A moment later, Mayborne was leaping back as make shift barriers fell into place around his assigned unit and the sound of gunshots and explosions sounded within.

"Sorry guys," he said, tapping on the walls for the people inside. "You're not the only group that uses sleeper agents."

He took up his radio and started switching frequencies.

"Hello, Major Shepard," he said into the radio. "This call is just to tell you that you've got a little less company than you did a minute ago."

"Who is this?" Shepard asked.

"I think O'Neil may have mentioned me a couple of times, Mayborne," he said.

There was silence and gunfire for a moment.

"Aren't you an Amalgam spy or something?" Shepard asked.

"Yes, well, Amalgam planted me in Socrates," he said heading back to the place he'd left off from Simmons. "And then O'Neil and I came to agreement."

"Uh huh," Shepard said. "Look we're a little busy, can we talk about this later?"

"Yeah, I've got your back, Shepard," Mayborne said. "Simmons won't even know what..."

He paused as he looked up the hallway toward where the exit was.

"Ah hell," he muttered.

He unleashed a hail of bullet fire at the Gods coming down the hallway and dived aside.

The first God that appeared around the corner was amused when a small round metal object landed at his feet and raised his mana shield. Then the raw concussive force of the grenade pushed into that shield and slammed the God up into the ceiling, stunning him.

And then Mayborne was spraying into the darkness with his submachine gun as he dived into another hallway.

The gauntlet had converted the little amount of chi he was able to produce and then amplified the resultant pishogue, but it was still a tool made during the Doublet System and designed mostly to stun an opponent.

Turning a corner, he was surprised and dismayed to find a hallway full of robotic spiders eating away at the surroundings and apparently blithely unaware of him.

"Demonic spiders," he said, shaking his head. "Simmons had to come this way and given the lack of dead bodies..."

Returning to his quick pace, Mayborne passed through the small hordes of machines untouched. And then behind him, one of the Gods came around the corner tossing fire and melting several of the robots.

Instantly the place was alive with shuffling, clacking, swarming mechanical spiders charging away toward the newest threat. The first God and those behind him blinked incredulously as they tiny mechanical things swarmed toward them.

Mayborne took use of the distraction to send a handful of bullets into the body and head of the foremost God, distracted as the man was, then he vanished around q corner.

He was very careful not to step on any of the many, many robotic spiders moving past him.

* * *

"A deadfall room," Simmons said, shaking his head. "This must have been a hurriedly put together set up. Kolya's usually not so shoddy as this."

"He doesn't usually use quite so many mechanical traps either," a soldier noted. "Or whatever those robots are supposed to be."

"No, his modus operandi is usually highly trained soldiers," Simmons said as they carefully made their way through the choke point containing the deadfalls.

A clacking noise called his attention to a small robotic spider he'd failed to notice before.

Just as it started tearing apart the trigger of the door traps

Simmons jumped for cover just in time as thick slabs of metal debris closed him inside with his men and laser-sights flared to life just long enough in some cases for several of his soldiers to pass through some of the triggers.

Shots and twangs ran out along with the screams of his soldiers, leaving him more or less untouched with an uncertain number of traps still waiting to be triggered.

"Damn it," he muttered.

"Ahhh," an intercom in Kolya's voice said. "Simmons. I had hoped you'd show up personally. Apparently the hospitality of my house was not complete if you're not as enjoying it as thoroughly as your soldiers probably are."

Gunfire sounded in the background of Kolya's intercom.

"Kolya," Simmons said. "You didn't actually expect such a ridiculous trap to work, did you?"

"Not against Major Shepard, no," Kolya said. "And I was right. Now you, I expected to get a little deeper. Granted, that particular welcome mat has probably been eaten by now. So this is about perfection. Feel free to wait in there until the timer counts down."

There was a pause for a moment.

"Ah, didn't I tell you about that? Major Shepard, better get the girl out of there quickly," Kolya said. "And Good bye, Simmons."

Simmons wanted to hit something but couldn't move for fear of triggering a trap or even the final explosive.

Which was when the space bulged out and a segment of it opened out into a blank space beyond in which sat what could only be Leonard Testarossa.

Above them somewhere, sparks showered and the sound of gunfire carried by the intercom died away.

"Now, we can talk privately," Leonard said, shadows still covering his face where he sat. "I think, Mr. Simmons that you have a reason to live."

"And what would you know that would help me do that?" Simmons asked.

"Well, I finally found my own way," he noted. "I sure know something you don't."

* * *

"Teyla? You're the power expert, what's up?" Shepard asked.

"I've borrowed Satomi's electrical sense," she said. "And I'm working on shorting them out."

"Lorne?" Shepard asked.

"Similar problems on the door," the captain said. "The electrokinesis helps, but there's a lot of redundancy here."

"Well, hurry," Shepard said, bullets spanged off the wall next to him. "Dr. Luther's Murder-Bots aren't around at the moment, but Kolya's people just found us."

Two marines took position across the hall in another alcove, one of them aiming an assault rifle down at the mercenaries, the closest they had to a squad support weapon at the moment.

Well, then there was Ronan.

A burst of energy left his gun and cut through the crate hiding one of Kolya's men, throwing the man behind it back easily. And then he was behind the cover again.

"That was...bigger than normal," one of the marines noted.

"Well, he said, use the chi to enhance what I already have," and he shrugged.

Inside, Skuld sweated nervously as one by one, red dots vanished, and some she was sure were vanishing where she couldn't see them. Then one of the dots vanished and...

...she shrieked as several metallic spangs ricocheted around the room inside with her. She raised a mana shield, and it caught most of the impacts, raising a series of welts and bruises over her and allowing a distraction that let the last bullet through and into her shoulder.

"Turning that one off triggered a trap!" Skuld shouted. "Watch it!"

"Oh yes," Kolya's voice said over the intercom. "I forgot to mention that."

"Damn it, Kolya, just lot her out of this!" Shepard said. "This is between you and me."

"I do agree," the man on the other end said. "Unfortunately, this is not my prepared lair where I can safely turn traps on and off in case of a mistake. I have nothing against the girl, but she is hardly helpless...witness our mutual problem."

Gunfire sounded in the intercom.

"Damn that guy," Shepard said bitterly. "I'm going to kill him this time. Any ideas?"

"None that don't risk the girl," Teyla said.

A skittering sound attracted several eyes and a mechanical spider lowering itself down to one of the marines was blasted away. Further down, amongst Kolya's men, one of them shouted in pain.

"It stabbed something into my neck!" before a thump and long silence followed by renewed gunfire pointed away from the Socrates people.

"Hey, Goddess," Shepard said. "Did you give these things needles, like to inject acid into a person or something."

"Umm, it was supposed to be non-lethal somethings," Skuld said.

"Great," the Major said. "When we get back, I'm telling whoever's responsible for you that you're not allowed to watch 80s movies anymore."

* * *

"As I know it, the process to make someone Ainur takes hours," Simmons said. "I do not think I have hours."

"I can take you out right now and we can get started," Leonard said.

"I think not," Simmons said, frowning as he looked around for someway to move.

"Oh well," Leonard said. "I'm afraid you'll have to present a rather more flawed demonstration then."

"What are you talking about?"

Leonard stepped out of the non-space and the patches on his cheeks and forehead weren't so much discolorations as they were places where something had been removed and empty nothingness has revealed.

Simmons opened his mouth to remind Leonard of the traps which did not go off and then a needle was sticking into his arm and something flushing in.

"A last little gift from Legion," Leonard said with a smile. "Unfortunately the only sample, we'll have to see what it does, won't we?"

* * *

"Ice!" Skuld shouted. "Look, one of the Yons! Ummm...Niichi I think. She shoots ice right or cold right?"

"What good is that going to do us?" Lorne asked.

"Ice becomes water," Teyla said. "And she moves through water."

"Do it! Quickly," Shepard said. "We've got Amalgam and Kolya and spider monsters and..."

"God!" one of the marines shouted and blistering wave of bullets and energy was suddenly sent down the corridor toward the identified threat.

A blue shield of Mana caught the majority of them before blasts of chi-enforced energy cracked a hole in the shield and hot lead poured in, slamming into the more or less bullet proof hide of the God.

At which point, Ronan rushed down the hall and slammed his fist into its head before drawing forth his sword with his other hand and slamming down.

The chi slammed down into mana which hardened resolutely against the charge, and failed to react quickly enough as the blade slid down and then slammed up underneath the directed shield through the thin layer of mana about the rest of the body.

A blast of wind filled the corridor then and Ronan was shoved back.

"More of them, great," Shepard said.

* * *

"We have heretics and blasphemers down below," a tall, violent looking God dressed in a disturbing sort of leather said. "Let's see what they're here for before we start fighting about sabotage and more."

The small horde of human cultists and their Godly masters nodded as they started moving down into the hidden area in force.

"We shall bring death to the..." the God stopped as things started going to hell.

All around, vines with sharp thorns quick grew over everything in view, completely enveloping several Mantles and stabbing into and through them until each was nothing but an immobile scaffold for quick growing rose vines. Even the sudden pain and screams of the pilots within were muffled.

Three of the Mantles started to turn around and raise their enhanced mana shield too late to do anything but slow down the slashes from the sword that cut through them.

And the remainder shuddered as bursts of white, chi-enhanced explosions slammed into them in a massive missile barrage that left none of the vehicles visible in an operating manner as two figures strode calmly out of the dust to join the third who was standing up from where she landed.

One of the figures was an amusing looking robot with a staff that marched awkwardly ahead of the regal form of a Goddess with long dark hair and in his wake roses were still growing as they reached out for the fleeing humans.

"Hello, Xipe Totec," the woman in front said, leaning on her sword. "Lady Peorth would like a word with you or so."

"Thank you, Lind," the named Goddess said as she came up level with the Valkyrie. "Banpei, please see to Skuld's safety below, we shall deal with these."

Xipe Totec and the thirty or so Gods still with him, mostly category threes he noticed, exchanged looks and glanced toward where the vehicles that were supposed to even the odds against category ones had been destroyed before they could get started. Grimacing their teeth, they charged forward.

Banpei walked past them, unmolested as rose bushes rose up to intercept attacks made on him and the Gods were forced to let him pass down to the underground region.

Xipe Totec darted around Lind where her sword was swinging and battering through the defenses of the other rebel Gods easily and he made a leap to attack the woman that had apparently presumed to take up Kami-sama's ridiculous philosophy.

The vines stopped him within two yards of Peorth and started to tighten.

"God of Flaying, right? I saw some of your work in Asgard," she said with what was supposed to be casual distaste. "Goddess of the Moment. And this is the Moment where what goes around comes around."

The vines started stripping off flesh layer by layer.

* * *

Mayborne dodged aside, chuckling as another swarm of spiders covered one of his opponents, and rolled into the next hallway.

He barely stopped in front of another trap and tucked himself into a corner before the God pursuing him came barreling into sight and chasing down the hallway, pursued by the spiders.

This time, the trap wasn't anything so simple as a sealed room. Mayborne was more than glad for his extremely thick cover as the foot thick steel he'd ducked behind was bent inward by the force of the two claymores that exploded on either side of the God.

Stepping out, Mayborne shook his head at the body that remained, impressed that there even was a body.

Then one of the hands started to move and groan came up.

Stepping forward, Mayborne put his weapon to the God's head and fired.

"Ahh, Mayborne," a voice said behind him.

He whirled to see Simmons there with a somewhat manic look on his face, veins bulging just under the skin along the hair line and the edge of the face.

"Simmons, what the hell happened to you?" he wondered.

"I've been given something glorious!" he shouted. "Glorious! Full and total power!"

He laughed in a thoroughly cliche manner and twisted about with a self-satisfied smile.

"And my if it isn't, wonderful," he said chortling.

Rolling his eyes, Mayborne lifted his submachine gun and fired.

The bullets seemed to rip around the laughing Simmons and into a bunch of robotic spiders nearby. Much to Mayborne's horror.

"What the hell?" he wondered looking Simmons.

"Now," Simmons said, suddenly turning serious as he leaned over and wrapped an arm around Mayborne's shoulders. "I think it's time for you to run now."

The spiders turned to look at Mayborne who fired more bullets at them and Simmons, ineffectual as that now seemed to be, until he was pushed back into another hallway.

"Now, let's see, how to play with the space-time continuum so that nobody can leave," Simmons said. "And then we'll have fun."

The power he was given was already tearing him apart physically though he couldn't feel it, and his mind was already turning further and further away form logical routes.

* * *

Skuld laughed victoriously as the water formed in the air and rained down over her forming a puddle on the ground around her. Then it was just a matter of activating her power and...

...and popping up in the hallway outside out of another puddle of water shaking in shock and pain as the dimensional barrier bounced her back.

"The hell?" Shepard shouted. "Is she..."

"She's fine," Teyla said, at Skuld's unconscious side. "This is what happened to people that were trying to teleport when the wall came down a week ago."

"Oh that's wonderful," Shepard said. "That means we're stuck here."

"I think now's the time to get moving from this location," Lorne said. "Charge on a timmer, you know."

Shepard nodded and scooped up Skuld.

"Let's go!" he called.

The marines gave them cover as they moved away from the trapped room, Ronan and Teyla ahead to watch for more traps and enemies. Behind them Kolya's men pushed forward as well, as much to get away from the mechanical spiders as anything else.

* * *

Banpei walked slowly through the underground area, digital display noting movement and making analysis as moved along. His sensors registered several other robots and garnered from their intercommunications that Skuld was among the lists of several targets they had.

An electromagnetic discharge wiped out everyone within twenty yards of him and forced him to stop for twenty seconds before starting again.

Turning the next corner found himself facing a figure that he recognized as a God on the rebel list. It looked at him in confusion for a moment before his staff came up and slammed into the God's chin and then twisted around to slam into his belly. This was finished up by a salvo of close range rockets which blasted the God into unconsciousness.

Banpei walked onward.

Several haphazardly armed and uniformed humans behind the God stared in shock and then fired out at Banpei, not understand as the crystals storing chi energy now installed into him rose a shield against the bullets. And a gas grenade or four launched out into the mass of the humans forcing them to cough and choke as he walked through them, laying about with his staff.

More spiders. They still hadn't recognized him as a threat since the EMP had erased memories before they could be transmitted. And another large number were put out of commission forcing Banpei to wait another twenty seconds to reboot.

Kolya's troops didn't even wait as the robot turned a corner to look at them with red eyes and a smiling face. However, the bullets were equally ineffective.

The exorcists with Kolya unleashed blasts of raw chi which forced Banpei to hold back a moment. And then he retaliated with a mass salvo of gas grenades and plodded onward as the soldiers retreated. A face was recognized from the lot as the one responsible for kidnapping Skuld and Banpei pushed forward silently and resolutely, it's face still smiling.

Sensors found traps as the soldiers ahead of it tried to lead him through into a pair of explosives. Banpei was mostly armed with what was intended to be non-lethal weaponry, though it had already made some settings changes when it helped take the Mantles outside. Right now, it was assessing that these, the people who had kidnapped Skuld, were willing to use lethal force.

So despite the preference it's creator had, he retaliated in kind.

The robot twisted it's head about quizzically and again unleashed a salvo of rockets which also triggered the traps that the soldiers had been trying to lead it to.

The claymores obliterated that section of hallway. Waiting briefly allowed Banpei to register the sound of Kolya's voice on the other side of the devastation and immediately it set about finding a plodding way to find the man.

Turning another corner he found another man fighting spiders. The man did not register on the list of faces for the rescue party, and Banpei reacted accordingly.

Mayborne cursed briefly as a large metal stick nearly took off his head and he rolled away from the strange robot that had slashed out with the stick.

It was just standing there, stick hold out stiffly, all the robot spiders around them suddenly still and silent. The Amalgam double? Socrates triple? The prolific traitor backed up cautiously wondering what the robot was doing.

And then twenty seconds passed and two gas canisters were launched in his direction.

* * *

"Okay, anybody else think we're not going to get anywhere given the number of explosions that have probably completely changed the lay out of this place?" Shepard asked.

Far back behind them, at what had been the room Skuld was trapped in, another explosion sounded.

"It's a distinct possibility," Teyla said.

"So, are there any people straight above us?" Shepard asked.

"Umm, what are you thinking?" Lorne asked.

"I think we have enough power here to blow a hole in the ceiling and get out of here," Shepard said. "It'll attract some attention, but I think we're already there."

"Oh, I think it's a wonderful idea," a voice said.

Every turned toward Simmons, noted he was visibly showing signs of chi-use and immediately started firing. The bullets passed around him again and the weapons were put aside as Teyla and Ronan charged forward, melee weapons in hand.

"You don't seriously think that will...!" Simmons stopped as Teyla's stick slammed into his gut.

This was followed by a kick from Ronan that sent the newly empowered human flying backwards with a look of shock. The sword in Ronan's hand barely sliced through a hastily raised shield and cut a thin line across Simmons' face, followed by another blow from a chi-reinforced stick in Teyla's hand that slammmed his head downward in time to meet Ronan's knee.

Flying back again, Simmons was stumbling back ward and trying to stand, forgetting that he had all sorts of powers, as Lorne leaped past Teyla and Ronan to grab the man's arm and start laying a knife to his throat.

And at that point there was a brilliant white flash and all three of the other Ainur vanished from view.

"That's not right, the big burly guy is supposed to go down easy to prove I'm a danger," Simmons said in a slurred tone as he stood up and looked over at a shell shocked Shepard who'd just put down Skuld and then stopped as his teammates vanished.

"What the hell did you do to them?" Shepard demanded.

"Oh I just moved them outside," Simmons said, gathering himself. "They're not playing by the rules see. This isn't supposed to be a battle of fisticuffs and power versus power, it's supposed to be me with overwhelming power to destroy you all!"

One of the marines charged forward then gun firing, and this time the bullets simply turned back on him and tore the man apart.

"Like that," Simmons said with a chortle.

Fuming with anger, Shepard gathered every bit of chi he could and lashed outward with it, cutting a swath through the ceiling that collapsed into a way out.

"No, no, you're not supposed to have power to," Simmons said. "You're supposed to outwit me! Or at least try."

"Get the girl outside!" Shepard shouted to the marines as he moved to face the insane and empowered Simmons.

Agreeing quickly, one of the marines took up the unconscious as the others moved for the exit.

Simmons tried to reach out and do something but immediately felt himself denied as Shepard was in his face and unleashing with raw anger to fuel a directed blast at the man.

* * *

The three Ainur blinked as they appeared in the middle of a battle field. Two Gods they recognized from briefings as higher ups in Asgard were fighting a battle against a number of Gods which was alternately dwindling or growing based on the willingness of the individuals to come into range.

"What the hell?" Lorne asked

"Ah," Peorth said. "I could appreciate the reinforcements, someone put up a dimensional wall which is going to make it hard to get out. Think you can hold while I break it?"

Ronan stepped forward to grab a God by the throat lift him up and slam him down into the ground and then shrugged.

"Seems like something that could be done," he said.

A moment later, a chi blast ripped of the ground behind them.

* * *

Simmons was trying to figure out why he was winning, the concept that the majority of his perceived power was just that: perceived. Didn't seem to occur to him, probably it couldn't any longer.

He finally had that huge reality warping power he'd envied in these lesser minds and all he could think to do with it was chortle and some sort of foolish mind games...

...which didn't work nearly as well when one's opponent was almost as strong and had been using the powers for a good month or two longer.

That Mayborne ran by again, firing against something. He turned and, at the last moment saw Simmons and then he was teleported, straight up.

* * *

Mayborne looked around and found himself about fifty feet up in the air and about to head downward.

"What the hell?" he shouted as he cartwheeled toward the ground, trying to right himself enough to take the fall correctly.

Slamming down he felt both legs cracking painfully.

And then he noticed he was in the middle of a battle.

"Oh this is turning into a lovely mission," he muttered painfully as he ripped a series of bullets into the back of a God focused on the swordswoman in front of him.

* * *

Simmons was a trained fighter, he should have been able at least able to stand up to Shepard, but found himself unable to recall exactly what to do as the Air Force soldier slammed punch after chi-enforce punch into him, most of which he only barely deflected or avoided by doing something weird.

Getting rid of Mayborne had given him a temporary boost of confidence however and he smiled as he let himself blast outward with raw power, forcing Shepard back through the disintegrating hall and leaving him clear in a massive crater.

Panting he stood up straight, trying to appear nonchalant and dignified when a strange sound caused him to look at an odd looking little metal man with a wide hat and simple, red-eyed smiley face. The sound he heard, he realized was that of some sort of pylon that had anchored the robot to the ground against the push.

"What are you some sort of android?" Simmons asked.

Banpei didn't answer that questions and instead simply smashing his stick up between the madman's legs, blasting what appeared to be rockets at the end of the strike for extra force.

Simmons gave a high pitched squeal and went flying through the air to land near where Shepard was already standing up.

"I think you just ran out of luck," Shepard said, reaching down to grab him angrily. "If you had any to begin with."

"This isn't what Leonard promised," he muttered before vanishing in a curious bending of space and falling back into something of a non-space.

Shepard cursed angrily and then looked over toward the odd robot, which waved at him strangely. Confused as to how to respond, he waved back.

"Umm are you here for Skuld?" Shepard asked in a sudden burst of inspiration.

The robot nodded.

"Well, she was with the rest of my people," he said. "And they should be on the..."

He looked up to the massive lack of a roof above them.

"...somewhere else above ground."

* * *

Simmons appeared in another room and shook his head, exhausted and his short burst of power already dwindling.

There were a horde of strange, funny looking metal spiders around him and as a test, he reached out with what remained of his ability to destroy one.

There was some reason he wasn't supposed to do that, but he forgot what it was just at the moment.

And he was still confused when the spiders swarmed over him to get rid of the threat.

* * *

The marines with Skuld reacted immediately when the first of them died to a gun shot, but the next three gunshots killed three more men. Only the remaining two marines managed accurate return fire, but the target was already behind cover by then.

Then that massive blast of chi sent them reeling off their feet and their enemy was on them before they could recover, knife slicing through their throats.

Kolya checked to make sure they were all dead and then snapped up the unconscious Skuld. If he could get away with her, then he could set this up again at the proper location and then he'd be able to finally pay Shepard back for his humiliations.

He paused on seeing the open battle going towards what had been the entrance of the underground death trap. Grimacing he started to turn about to the other direction, when he felt the barrel of something cold and metal behind his head.

"I feel like asking, Kolya," Shepard said behind him. "Did you see the sunrise?"

"What are you..."

And then gunshot carried through the air, swallowed in the sounds of battle.

"Tom Selleck, you wouldn't understand," Shepard said as he bent down to check Skuld.

The robot came up behind him and seemed worried despite the lack of a real expression.

"All right," Shepard said. "Think you could carry her?"

The robot nodded.

"Then let's..."

First one robot spider and then several appeared and Shepard grimaced.

Until they all stopped moving suddenly as did Banpei, for twenty seconds.

"Hey all right," Shepard said. "That'll work."

They worked their way down to the battle going on and moving toward the center. He arched an eyebrow at the Goddesses and then his team.

"Well, the dimensional wall fell apart," one of the Goddesses, he recognized her from reports as Peorth, making her THE big gun at Asgard. "Without much effort too."

Officially at least.

He'd heard about Peorth. He'd seen Mara and Belldandy.

Two of those were visibly doing a lot more than the third.

"Okay," Shepard said. "Explanations on that later. For now we have a rather large group of robot spider things that keep building more of themselves. Think anybody can do an EMP that covers maybe...five miles?"

Peorth grimaced.

"Get Skuld out of here, Banpei as well. It won't be selective," she said. "Then yes. I think I can do that if you can continue to buy me time."

"Got it," Shepard said. "Teyla...take the bot and the kid home..."

"What about me?" a pained voice called out.

"And the Mayborne," Shepard sighed.

* * *

Power went out all over Tokyo, up to and including some of the machines piloted by the Gods given the amount of power that Peorth put into it.

And then the rescue teams were completely gone.

* * *

Major Samantha Carter looked over the results of the readings they were getting. The fallout was being successfully pushed upwards. Between the lot of lightning and electricity related Gods, Demons, Ainur and assorted psychics they'd been able to put together, there was a firm curtain of mana, chi and pishogue pushing upward against the radiation around both Eastern Europe and Okinawa.

The extension of the exercise to two locations had strained some numbers, but it was still possible.

Especially since there were a surprising number of category ones from all three species involved in the exercise.

However, it wasn't the success of the mission that was most telling on them at the moment.

"There's no doubt, there was an intelligent attempt to counter exactly what we were doing," Carter said.

"It was powerful too," Thor said. "Even after fatigue and injury, a single category one should not have been able to cause that much trouble for all of us."

"They were inexperienced," Raiden said. "And incautious, not like our young Ainur friends."

"Agreed," Athena said panting. "But excessively powerful despite being easily disrupted. Inefficient and extremely powerful, what does that describe."

"Pishogue," Urd said with a sigh. "Mara's virus team just got a lot more important. The Demons in Nidhog aren't just sucking their thumbs up there."

"Or out here," O'Neil said coming into the room. "Unless you forgot that we had about two hundred of them set up despot dictatorships around the world in Africa, South America, parts of Asia."

"We might have to invade Nifelheim before Nidhog is purged," Captain Testarossa said. "I think I need to talk to someone about another upgrade."

"What do you have left?" Thor asked. "The network, Silmaril..."

"You want Domains," Athena reasoned with a thoughtful look.

"We're not going to have cruise missiles and artillery in Nifelheim," Tessa noted.

* * *

Author Notes

* * *

Okay, count the references and trope jokes made in the midst of the carnage


	49. Conversations in Recovery

"Excuse me," Kaname said insistently.

Several faces turned to look at her and she immediately felt just the littlest bit self-conscious, but firmed herself up and made her point anyway.

"Okay," she said. "I'm going to go visit Eija in Atlantis's hospital. I'll be back here or at Mara's tomorrow...or tonight...or whatever, but right now, I've got a friend in the hospital and if things are done I'm going to visit her."

Major Carter exchanged a look with first O'Neil and then Captain Testarossa and Athena.

"Yes, please do that," Tessa said in a calm tone. "I shall likely be there myself soon to visit Second Lieutenant Mao."

Kaname blinked in confusion at there being no protest, but recovered quickly.

"All right," she said, nodding firmly and turning on her heels, she found herself walking out the door.

"So, your people hire teenaged drill sergeants too?" O'Neil asked with a smirk.

"Miss Chidori can be quite brusque when upset," Tessa admitted.

Kaname wasn't far into the hallway as she noted that Eija was still asleep, or unconscious, but felt like she might be waking up soon. Sousuke was already in Atlantis, of course, she'd left him there with Eija when she'd been sent here to do the electro-thing.

_Dr. Beckett assures us that Eija is fine,_ Sousuke told her.

Kaname nodded and ran through a series of numbers before disappearing from the hallway as two people turned a corner.

Dr. Jackson looked over toward Teal'C.

"Okay, remember when the gateroom was the only place we had things moving in and out of this dimension?" he asked.

"Indeed," Teal'C noted with a smirk.

* * *

Deimosu saw Kaname coming out of the Atlantis gate-room at a near run heading for the hospital area. She hadn't even spared a moment to notice passing him up. The young Ainur, of course, knew why.

A grimace started to work over his face as he thought of the number of times that Eija had ended up hurt or unconscious around Sousuke and Kaname.

The fact that the girl had somehow convinced Eija to accept sharing the same man...it felt almost to him as if Kaname and Sousuke had basically asked her to be the official mistress. If that wasn't taking advantage of his sister's gentle nature he wasn't sure what was.

_Deimosu, perhaps you should calm down a bit,_ Yonjuu suggested.

_That girl and that two-timing guy are making a fool out of my sister on her sickbed, again,_ he responded.

_He looks very...umm...I can't tell,_ Yonjuu said. _But he smells really worried, even if his face is calm._

Increasing his own pace he was coming to the entrance of the recovery rooms when his mother stepped out from the door to intercept him with an outstretched hand first.

"You and me need to talk before you go in there," his mother said. "You don't want Eija to wake up seeing you arguing with Kaname."

"So I'll argue with Sagara then," he noted, starting to move around the small form of his mother.

Ranma moved aside to intercept him and put one implacable hand on his chest and let him try to push forward with no results. He stopped and stepped back, feeling sheepish as he saw the disappointed look on his mother's face.

"There's an empty room over here," Ranma said, gesturing toward a door and waiting for Deimosu to walk into it.

Following her son in, she let the Atlantean door close behind her and leaned against it, looking tired.

"Now about the issue with you and your sisters," the red-head said.

"What issue?" Deimosu asked.

"Fine, we'll start with you and Eija's friends," Ranma commented.

"You mean that two-timing jerk and the domineering..." Deimosu stopped as Ranma's hand was raised.

"Eija likes them, they like Eija," Ranma said. "And they've been there for her. They're not hurting her..."

"But she's always getting injured," Deimosu noted. "And always has something to do with them."

"Deimosu," she responded. "We're in the middle of a war. Practically everybody's been on the recovery list at least once. If you stopped to think, I'd bet you'd notice that Kaname isn't exactly in the peak of health after today either."

"But, it's Eija," Deimosu protested.

"Meanwhile, you have no concern for Naiki," Ranma said.

Deimosu tried to answer but couldn't think of one.

"Either you think Eija can't take care of herself," Ranma noted. "Or you don't think what happens to Naiki matters."

"That's not true!" Deimosu protested. "Neither is true. But Naiki is..."

"Naiki is what?" Ranma asked.

"She gropes people and chases guys and girls," Deimosu said. "She's almost as bad..."

The warning look he got sent a shiver down his back.

"You're supposed to look out for your sisters," Ranma agreed, letting the near comment pass. "Not lording over them. I think you'll find that we'll be having Sousuke and Kaname around for a long time. And Naiki's starting to mature too. They make their own decisions, they don't need you for that."

"But, look at wh..." he stopped and remembered what Cu Cuchalin had said. "I...I am arrogant like Zeus."

"No," Ranme said firmly. "You're arrogant like me."

Deimosu scrunched his brows up and looked toward his mother.

"Zeus doesn't care about anything or anybody else as long as he gets what he wants," the exorcist explained. "I just think I know better than everybody."

"You're not arrogant, Okaasan," Deimosu protested. "Arrogant people don't..." he paused and changed what he was about to say. "They don't admit to being arrogant. I never have."

"Until just now," Ranma said pointedly.

Deimosu stared at her in a bit of shock.

"We're going in now," Ranma said. "Be polite, no snarking, no insulting Kaname or Sousuke. And I want you to pay attention to what's going on with Naiki and Eija, got it? Watch their faces, Deimosu."

"I'll try," he said.

* * *

Eija woke up slowly and leaned up out of the medical bed, feeling the familiar aftereffects of a healing spell combined with sensation of a heart-monitor.

"Eija!"_Eija!_ Kaname gasped both out loud and telepathically as she reached down to firmly hug up the waking girl. "Thank the Heavens!"

"It is good to see you up," Sousuke said simply, even as Eija could feel an equally intense wave of relief coming out of him as he stood at her bedside.

"What happened?" she asked. "Are we back in Atlantis?"

"There was...a booby trap," Sousuke said quietly. "Batiste apparently set it off."

Eija slumped heavily into Kaname's softening hug and sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"It wasn't your fault," Kaname assured her. "He made the mistake, not you."

Very self-consciously, Sousuke laid a hand on Eija's own and squeezed as Kaname continued sitting on the bed next to her on the other side.

"Are you effective?" he asked, which was about as close as he could get to "how are you?"

"Yes," Eija said, sitting up carefully. "I feel somewhat stiff, but that is all. I shall be fine. We stopped all of Gauron's bombs, right?"

Kaname and Sousuke shared a nervous look

* * *

"Don't worry, I'm just perfectly fine!" Lusca said waving.

"You were riddled with cannon shells," Naiki protested.

"Cannon shells?" Kyoko repeated with a distinct trace of worry.

"The holes get smaller when I get smaller," Lusca explained nodding with a smile. "And I'm really good at shapeshifting so it's all just flesh wounds."

Most of the worst injuries had been healed by one of the Gods, but she was still wrapped up in bandages all over her torso, shoulders and neck. A couple of her braids had been shorter as well, though after unbraiding them, they grew back to length fairly quickly. Lusca was in the process of rebraiding them carefully in between cheerful outbursts.

"Shouldn't you be visiting your sister?" Lusca asked, pointing toward one of the far ends of the room where Kaname and Sousuke sat around Eija's bed.

"Ah, let the love-birds visit," Naiki said, "I'll talk to her in a little bit."

The bandaged brunette smiled even more brightly if that was possible.

"Then I'm important?" she asked.

"Of course you're important," Kyoko said simply. "You're our friend."

"Yeah, the next stalker wouldn't be near as nice," Naiki said leaning back.

"How about cute?" Lusca asked.

"Well, you do even make the mummy-look cute," Kyoko said with a smile. "Right Naiki?"

"I'm still distracted by the whole 'gaping injuries in my friend's small body' thing," Naiki said.

"SQUUUEEE!" Lusca called out, drawing most eyes toward her as she started to lean over, maybe to hug Naiki and then stopped herself. "You're still worried about me!"

"Yeah," Naiki said, flushing. "Yes I am. I mean, you just jumped out and went after those robots without even stopping or thinking or anything. Mom and I had to go out and help you and everybody else. It could have been bad!"

_Naiki,_ Tessa's voice asked as the other teen came into Atlantis's dimension. _Are you lecturing someone else about recklessly diving forward?_

_Yeah, so what's the..._ Naiki stopped a little bit. _Oh._

She looked across the room and noticed a small smirk being directed her way from her mother near the door. Glancing over toward Kyoko, the girl with the glasses was raising her camera to her face and clicking a picture of the look of embarrassed epiphany on Naiki's face.

Immediately, Naiki tried to salvage the situation with a subject change.

"What can you all do with your tentacles anyway?" Naiki asked.

Kyoko glanced over at her with a curious expression.

"Well, I can make a wall to protect myself, though damaging the tentacles still hurts," Lusca said. "And I can make bandages and go fishing and grab stuff and you can play games with them when you're alone and you can do stuff while reading...why?"

"So, umm...is there anything else you can do with tentacles?" Naiki asked.

"Probably," Lusca said, a bit confused. "What else would you want me to do?"

"Ummm...nothing," Naiki said.

Lusca looked a bit more confused and then shrugged.

"I can do nothing with tentacles," she declared. "That's easy!"

* * *

The bruises were mostly gone and the bullet had been pulled out of her leg and the injury closed by a Goddess's healing touch. The Goddess responsible was currently hugging the teen pinkette Goddess tightly as several other people circled around the bed.

"Oh thank goodness you're back and safe," Belldandy declared emphatically.

"You had us worried, kiddo," Urd said in what she hoped was a casual tone.

"Are you doing okay, Skuld?" Keiichi asked.

"Yeah," Skuld said quietly, flushing a little. "I'm fine, I just...I'm fine."

The young Goddess didn't want to talk about the robots she'd shoddily programmed. Robots which had killed people. Or the mercenary she'd knocked unconscious and tried to pull to safety only to have him die almost on top of her. At the time, with all the danger and activity, she hadn't had to think of it. Now she was partly having trouble thinking of anything else.

She glanced around and noted Chihiro, Tomaki, Otaki, Megumi and most everybody else from her normal circle of friends. She even thought she saw Mara in the doorway, though it was only a brief glimpse so she couldn't be sure.

Sentaro wasn't there, but she'd been told he was in a different refugee group, which they had specified wasn't in Okinawa for some reason. Sora was supposed to be at some sort of factory as Whirlwind's representative on something. Sanya was recuperating in her own quarters, and making a nuisance of herself to Shampoo given that her legal guardian and sister was also on the injured list.

Aoishima was also missing, but that was the norm. He wasn't exactly a friend of the group.

Sayoko's absence and the lack of discussion about her, despite the description of where the other absent people were, was somewhat glaring.

"Where's Sayoko?" Skuld asked.

There were some uncomfortable glances before Belldandy straightened her shoulders quietly.

"She's...in the Whisper of Souls," her middle sister said. "Zeus...did some damage that needs to be fixed."

Skuld sat up in the hospital bed and her brow furrowed in confusion for a moment. The only kind of damage that could be fixed by an ascension device was the sort that came...she shivered.

"But doing...that...that's illegal!" Skuld protested.

Even as she said it, it sounded childish and naive. Especially given everything else that had gone on and with the name Zeus involved. She didn't want to think about it. She didn't even like to think what she suspected was a close call with Aoshima a couple of years ago.

But that one of her...sort of friends had had that happen to her?

"Will she be okay?" Skuld asked quietly.

"She won't be alone," Belldandy assured her sister. "And you'll be fine to leave here pretty soon too, so everything will be just fine."

Belldandy sounded almost as if she were trying to convince herself, which was an uncomfortable thing to hear from her sister. Though that worry faded somewhat as Belldandy hugged her again.

"So, I hope you don't mind," Chihiro said after a moment. "We made a few mods to Banpei."

"What?" Skuld said in surprise. "What did you do to my Banpei?"

* * *

"Dr. Beckett said that you weren't in the best of shape," Dr. Weir told Mara. "Shouldn't you be resting?"

Mara was a bit pale, still recovering from the internal bleeding even though it had stopped. Replacing the blood was taking some time and stuff kept popping up. Under ordinary circumstances she wouldn't be close to exhaustion yet, but stuff was adding up.

"It's been suggested," Mara said. "At least, unlike certain Mithril personnel, I'm not thinking about going into full battle like this."

"That's good to know," Dr. Weir said. "Now you had a request?"

"I was trying to fix Nidhog with about thirty Demons, Chidori and Megumi Morisato," Mara said. "Because almost all my Shadows were supporting Kyushu or in mainland Japan. With what Captain Testarossa just relayed me, I've got to put more personnel on that."

"What is the exact situation?" the Ainur woman asked.

"When Nidhog went up, it basically froze with all the hacking and counter-hacking its been subjected too," Mara said. "It's performing everything it's supposed to, but nobody can access the settings or anything like it. So it's keeping all the settings the rebels gave it before they turned it on."

"Which is why all the rebel Demons right now have more power than they should," Dr. Weir said.

"In all honesty," Mara said. "I'm glad they tried this crap."

"Why is that?" Weir asked.

"Because I have close to a hundred thousand civilian Demons stuck in the worst prison any official government has ever created," Mara said. "Nobody in their has been officially marked as a prisoner, but that doesn't mean they can't run afoul of the punishments that were in place for other Demon prisoners. So when the criminals attacked Earth..."

"They put themselves up on the priority list and let you get to your civilians faster," Dr. Weir said. "I'm assuming the next request is personnel?"

"Yeah, this is going to be a battle," Mara said. "And we had Ainur and Asgardian Gods in Nidhog cleaning Zeus's attack. One of those criminals might have noticed and realized that we're patched together somewhere. Our main task is to fix Nidhog, once we got that we'll be able to shut the renegades down, but just in case..."

"People to defend the repair crew," Weir noted. "More to defend Silmaril."

"Captain Testarossa is working with General Hammond on invading Nifelheim physically," Mara said. "I've got Moloch working with them on that. And I'm handling this part of the assault personally. Now, I know you have people with experience with gate-building. How many Ainur do you think you could spare with either programming, gate-building or exorcism experience?"

"I assume you're talking to Asgard about this too," Dr. Weir said.

"Actually, I talked to Belldandy," Mara said.

Granted Peorth was watching and decided to make an offer, but that certainly wasn't planned.

Traditionally, the Gods had actually been the most successful manipulators through the ages, but they'd fallen out of active practice around five hundred or more years ago. It felt good to pull one over on them, even as allies.

"Major Carter is supposed to be working with me on this too," Mara said. "But I thought I should make this request directly."

"I'll see what I can do," Dr. Weir said. "I think I can warn you of at least one name that'll be on your list."

"I've been told I should carry around citrus fruits," Mara said wryly, shaking her head.

* * *

Mara sat down and then lay back in her bed, just about ready to go to sleep now that it was coming to the end of the day. Her eyes had just about closed when there was a knocking sound outside.

Groaning she called out, "Come in, it's open."

Sitting up as the door slid open, she blinked in surprise to see a very nervous looking Skuld there.

"Ehh, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"Uhh, Mara," Skuld said. "I need to...ask about something."

"Why not talk to Belldandy then?" Mara asked. "I've had my fill of conversations with teenagers today."

"I...I want to help fix Nidhog," she said.

Mara looked at her closely then on that.

"You've already got Kaname Chidori helping you," Skuld protested. "And Megumi! Naiki was on the battlefield! I can help!"

"Kaname is on her first incarnation and isn't laboring under the artificial limitations Yggdrasil and Nidhog put on younger Immortals," Mara noted. "Megumi is in her twenties."

"Mara, I have to help!" Skuld protested. "I have to. It doesn't take powers to help with hunting bugs and stuff."

Mara sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Skuld was a verifiable genius, probably a Prophet, like Kaname, which would really speed things up if she could activate that. And she needed all the help she could get.

But hell if this wouldn't piss off Belldandy and Urd something fierce.

"I'll think about it," Mara said. "I have to talk to some people about this."

Skuld nodded firmly and pumped her hands in a fist.

This time she would help people and not screw up like with those stupid spider things.

"I won't disappoint you!" she said.

"One other question," Mara said.

"What is it?" Skuld asked.

"Why is your hair pink?" the Demoness asked.

* * *

_Are you calmed down now?_ Yonjuu asked, hopefully as Deimosu came into the room.

He snapped his head toward where she was standing with Kurz in talking to Nimu.

_Did you tell my Mom I was coming?_ Deimosu asked.

Yonjuu looked a little nervous as she answered.

_You shouldn't upset your sisters and mother,_ Yonjuu said. _I mean, you actually have a good mother, unlike some of us._

Deimosu grimaced and crossed his arms for a moment.

_You have a point,_ he said reluctantly. _...And I haven't asked how you are yet, have I?_

_No, you haven't yet,_ Yonjuu said. _When I woke up you were working on pushing radiation up into the upper atmosphere and then you were angry at Kaname._

Deimosu had no response for a moment.

_How are you?_ Deimosu asked.

_I'm fine,_ she said. _The bump on the head was the most serious thing apparently. Now, shall we get on with visiting our respective sisters?_

She crossed her arms under her breasts and stared across at him, showing the trace of personality that did show some of her descent from certain individuals.

Deimosu likewise stared across at her with his arms crossed. At least she wasn't directing her stubborness at calling herself ugly just at the moment. Both nodded then and turned toward their relative.

* * *

Kasumi sat with Tofu quietly waiting the clear signal to be allowed to go to Okinawa where Nabiki watched their daughter at Akane's and Ryuu's home.

Tofu waited until he couldn't sense anybody within hearing range.

"How long were you planning to do that?" he asked.

Kasumi was quiet for a moment.

"It has always been a contingency," she said quietly. "As for when I decided, about when we recovered that poor Egyptian woman. The scale was just somewhat larger than just my home and family."

"You could have told me," he said.

"You would have stopped me," Kasumi said. "Or gone with me. There was a risk, Kimiko needs at least one of us."

Tofu frowned thoughtfully and looked down.

"You knew what I was when you married me," Kasumi said softly, looking away. "I would still be here had not Wraith...removed us."

"Death is lighter than a feather," Tofu quoted. "You follow your duty then?"

"Our daughter also needs a home," she noted. "And a country."

Tofu nodded and wrapped an arm carefully around Kasumi's shoulders.

* * *

"What the hell am I doing here?" Mao demanded loudly as the sedatives wore off and she came to in the hospital.

She started to sit up and swing her feet around to the floor and immediately felt woozy before falling back again.

"I'd suggest you keep lying down for now," Dr Beckett said casually. "You're still replacing lost blood and recovering from the sedative."

"I don't have time to sit around here and recover," Mao said with a grimace as she sat up a little slower and more cautiously. "I have a mission to run."

"As I understand it," Beckett responded, "that mission was already concluded."

He pointed further down the room toward where Sousuke and Kaname were visiting with Eija and then toward where Kurz was visiting with Nimu. As he did so, Mao watched a certain red-head move quietly around Sousuke, giving the mercenary a look that said there would definitely be a discussion between her and the young Ainur later. However, for the moment, Ranma was heading her way.

Even between the traces of sedative and not yet completely healed injury, she felt a bit warm as she noted this evidence of Ranma's concern for her. It was the same cute sort of paranoia he'd shown after Meridia when rumors worked to her that the red-head had been asking around about her after the fight.

Swinging her feet to the floor, slowly, Mao stood straight up, noticing the bandaging that immobilized her injured arm for the first time. Shaking her head, she reached up to scratch at her head as the red-head reached her position and looked up into her face.

"Think this will get in the way as much as the broken leg?" she asked, drawing a blush from the red-head who immediately looked around toward where her kids were.

"Why is it always the outspoken women?" Ranma wondered quietly as she confirmed that apparently nobody had caught the comment just yet. "Mao, I think you should sit back down again."

Dr. Beckett, also flushing at the implications raised, turned to confirm the suggestion.

"You're still a little disoriented," Beckett said. "So I have to agree with...Director Satomi?"

"Right, privacy," she said, shaking her head to clear it and try to get back on topic. "Don't worry, Doctor, I'm fine to stand around a little. Now, what the hell happened with the mission?"

"Mara's Demons evacuated East Berlin," Ranma said. "The fallout isn't going to be a problem immediately. There were problems...but we can wait to talk about those. Right now, you should be resting. They've had Gods close the wound, but there's still something to be said for bedrest. Am I right?"

She looked toward Dr. Beckett.

"Oh definitely," the man said emphatically. "At least for a couple of days."

"Does it matter where I get that bedrest?" Mao asked.

"No, I suppose, you could return to your quarters," Beckett said.

"All right," Mao said starting to walk woozily toward the door.

"Wait, maybe you should at least wait for the sedative to wear off completely," he said.

"I got this," Ranma said, moving toward the taller woman and wrapping one supportive hand around Mao's waist, and pulling the other woman's arm to her shoulder. "I'll get her into bed just fine."

Beckett stared at her with a flush as did several other people who were watching Ranma help Mao out the door.

"Not like that," Ranma muttered. "Perverts."

Mao was very close to saying "at least not until he slips into something more comfortable...like taller and male" but kept enough presence of mind to keep that underneath her smirk.

"I swear if you say anything about escorting a lady, Satomi," Mao did say, however.

Ranma sighed and shook her head as she passed Eija's bed and nodded toward Sousuke.

"We'll be talking in a little while, Sagara," she said in a straight tone.

"Yes, Ma'am," he said, flushing a little.

"Just make sure not to kill him," Mao muttered as the two left the room.

At which point Naiki, Deimosu, Kyoko and others congregated around Eija's bed where the Goddess was sitting up.

"Are they seeing each other?" Deimosu asked.

"No way," Naiki said, "she doesn't react to women ever. Back me up on this one Yonjuu."

She yelled across the room.

"Quite, there are distinct smells whe..."

"There see?" Naiki said. "So how could they be dating, Mao is straight?"

Then she frowned and thought back to a few months back.

"Just a moment, didn't Okaasan..." Eija started to say.

_Your mother's been keeping the fact she has a male form secret, Naiki,_ Tessa warned as she felt the direction Naiki's own thoughts were going.

And that brought Naiki moving across to slap a hand around Eija's mouth.

"Umm, Okaasan said nothing," Naiki said in a suspiciously false tone of voice. "So, yeah, either they're not dating, or Mao's gone lesbian without me or Yonjuu being able to smell it."

Eija meanwhile pointed toward the hand over the lower part of her face while mumbling.

"Naiki," Kaname said. "Either let Eija breathe, or you'll be getting your own bed here."

Naiki blinked and looked around toward the expressions on Sousuke and Deimosu's faces and immediately pulled her hand back.

"Oh, sorry about that," she said, chuckling nervously as Eija took in a breath.

Kyoko shook her head, covering her mouth to conceal a slight smile and laugh.

"What is all that about?" Kurz asked, looking toward Yonjuu.

"I'm not particularly interested," Nimu said, sitting up. "I'm more concerned being dragged out of a mission while I could still help."

"You couldn't walk," Kurz reminded her. "Any word on when you'll be out of here, by the way?"

"Dr. Beckett assured me that I'd be ready for duty before the primary invasion of Japan is ready," Nimu said.

"Which wasn't exactly what I was asking," Kurz said.

Yonjuu leaned in and sniffed at him curiously with narrowed eyes.

"Is there something wrong Yonjuu?" Nimu asked, crossing her arms curiously.

"Fifteen," the Ni said seriously drawing confused looks from both Nimu and Kurz.

* * *

For a time, the entirety of the world was the vague feeling of connected minds that made up the Ainur and the odd Whispered that still hadn't been found.

It was mostly comforting, there were a lot more people involved since she'd taken the chance not so long ago. And most of them were of good sorts from what she could tell from the brief contact.

There had been something worrisome somewhere, like something missing or torn out, but she reasoned that was likely an echo of her own mental state. Especially as the damage done to her psychic connections was repaired and the pain started to fade away.

Then the physical world started to come back into focus around her and she was in a sensory deprivation tube with the ostentatious title of "Whisper of Souls" and pushing her way out, the unlocked door swinging open easily.

Outside she found Belldandy and Keiichi along with a number of the Nekomi Tech staff.

"H..how are you Sayoko?" Keiichi asked.

Internally, she still wanted to scream, or else go back into the comforting immersion within the bulk of protective, decent Ainur minds, but she wasn't going to show that chink in front of all her friends just now.

She stood up straight then brushed off her shoulders, taking in the simple shift she was wearing, probably from the hospital.

"I think I need a change of wardrobe," she said with something of her old behavior.

Keiichi breathed a sigh of relief, though Belldandy and Urd still seemed concerned. The elder of the two was standing back with a grimace and looking at Sayoko's face. Belldandy had a more direct manner of addressing things.

The grey-haired young woman stepped forward and pulled Sayoko into a warm-comforting hug that had Sayoko blushing in embarrassment at the action.

"I'm sorry," Belldandy whispered. "We should have checked."

"Belldandy," Sayoko said, trying to keep a cool tone of voice, "I was clear and safe and went back to help find Skuld. It wasn't your fault."

She looked around and noticed Skuld wasn't there.

"Where is Skuld is she still missing?" the Ainur asked.

"She was still in the hospital bed," Keiichi said, coming up to her and Belldandy's side. "We were going to get her to come with us, but when we went back, the Doctor's say she went to go speak to Mara about something."

"The Demon Queen pro-tem?" Sayoko asked, frowning.

"Don't worry about it," Chihiro said, stepping forward. "She's safe, you're safe, Sora is safe. Keiichi, Bell and Urd are safe. Megumi's safe. Even these two low-lifes are safe."

She jabbed her thumb back at Tamiya and Otaki.

"Aww, boss, will you let it go?" Otaki asked.

"Hey, Sayoko," Urd said finally. "I know they're going to ask you to check in with one of the doctors or healers around here, want to come with me? I kind of skipped out on that bit."

"Oh, I'm certain that I could handle both issues right now," Belldandy said, turning momentarily away from Sayoko to look at Urd.

"No, she's right, best to be official about things," Sayoko said quickly.

Belldandy thought about pushing the issue, but shook her head, realizing that Urd wanted to talk to Sayoko in private and Sayoko was willing to do so.

"All right then," Chihiro said cautiously. "I think Keiichi and I need to go look at tweaking the Scirroco a bit."

Keiichi nodded in agreement.

"Right," he said, wondering himself why Urd wanted a chance to talk to Sayoko privately. "It could still be a bit more efficient and maybe we could get Skuld in on something."

"Wait a minute," Tamiya said. "Shouldn't we have a party or something, why are just going right back to work?"

"And aren't they already making more Scirrocos?" Otaki asked.

"Just get moving you traitors, go!" Chihiro snapped.

Belldandy was the last to leave the room, nodding back at Urd as she and Sayoko headed in a different direction, toward the medical facility, moving away from Atlantis' guarded Whisper of Souls.

"I take it you aren't buying the 'I'm fine thing,'" Sayoko said.

Urd glanced back over her shoulder and then turned toward the nearest shiny surface she could, waving her hand over it to make it even more reflective with a simple, temporary spell. Glancing in the makeshift mirror, Sayoko noted that the diamonds that had once been at her eyes had become droplet shapes, like tears, and the crown mark on her forehead seemed somewhat less regal and more militant.

"Sometimes, a big enough event changes us down to the core," Urd said. "With Immortals like you and me, that can show in the marks on our faces. And that's not something you just get over. Even without that, you have to know...we'd all know you weren't just better after two hours away from the world."

Sayoko sighed and resisted the urge to slump as Urd canceled the mirror effect.

"So...I'm going to be pregnant?" Sayoko asked.

"That's the usual pattern," Urd said quietly. "How do you want to handle that?"

"I don't know," Sayoko said.

* * *

Mara's eyes blinked open as her door opened and she sat up quickly to see what was happening. She'd only programmed a couple of people with access to just open her door.

She was moderately surprised to see one of those people walking in with another person.

"Ranma," Mara said. "And Lieutenant Mao, is something wrong?"

As she asked, Ranma moved Mao over to sit on the couch.

"Just stay in bed, Mara," Ranma said. "I'm just getting you both situated."

"I have my own assigned quarters, Satomi," Melissa said with a sort of tired irritability. "Until I'm back on the DaDannan or Meridia is repaired at least."

"Right," Ranma said. "So this is the situation. You, Mara, need to rest but people keep bugging you..."

"And this helps how?" Mara asked.

"I'm getting to that," Ranma said.

Mao looked over at Mara then and frowned as she started to notice the other woman's worse than normal pallor.

"You, Mao, need to rest, but you're determined to be 'doing' something," Ranma said. "So, here's the thing. Mao, stay in this room and make sure that Mara gets at least eight hours sleep, preferably just let her sleep out til she's good. That's light enough you're still getting rest, and it'll give you something 'to do'. Are we agreed?"

Mao's mouth twitched into a smile and crossed one arm over where the other was still isolated.

That had been explained to her, the outer wound had been closed and the internal bleeding stopped, but they were keeping the arm isolated while some of the damage to her bone and muscles healed completely, in addition to replacing lost blood.

"Sooo, is this where Eija gets it?" the marine asked.

"What?" Mara asked rubbing her hand through her head as Ranma winced.

"What are you talking about?" the red-head asked cautiously, though she had to admit she suspected what was coming.

"So have you slept together yet?" Mao asked.

Mara's eyes popped out wide and she whipped her head toward Mao and then Ranma.

"Now wait a minute," she said. "I'm straight, really completely straight."

"He has a male form you know," Mao told Mara, and was gratified to see a weak flush in the woman's face.

Given the apparent pallor she was in before, that said something.

"Melissa are you still high?" Ranma asked, pinching her nose.

Meanwhile Mao stood up from the couch where Ranma had set her down and moved to sit down beside the shocked Mara, putting her good arm around the Demoness.

"Now," the lieutenant said. "When you wake up, we're going to have to get you and Satomi here a first date. And then we're going to have a girl-talk about finding some lesbian out there, because you just know that the woman side is going to get really pent up not getting anything out of the two of us."

"I'm right here you know," Ranma said.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Mara asked. "The only sort of relationship I'd have with Ranma is a Stockholm Syndrome!"

"I'm not that bad..." Ranma muttered.

"Right, now go to sleep and try not to be distracted by imagining the idea of spending a night with him trying to find your access port," Mao said with a smile.

Mara and Ranma stared at her in disbelief before Mara narrowed her eyes.

"This is revenge for knocking you out and taking over your mission isn't it?" Mara asked.

"And calling you a lady," Ranma reasoned.

"Yes," Mao said in cheerful tone.

"Could you just make sure she gets some sleep, and watch she doesn't have a problem in the night," Ranma asked Mao weakly.

"Right," Mao said. "I'll make sure she gets all her necessary rest."

Ranma nodded and was about to leave the embarrassing scene when Mao snapped her fingers.

"Ah ha!" Mao said.

"What is it?" Mara and Ranma asked.

"The secretary," she said.

"Yomiko?" Mara asked.

"I'll bet she's at least bi," Melissa said with a smirk.

The Demoness and exorcist went back to staring at the Ainur in mild disbelief.

"You're still high, aren't you?" Mara muttered.

"Doesn't make it not a good idea," the marine said.

Then Mara found herself gently pushed back into bed by the marine with currently one-good arm and firmly tucked in under the covers much to her consternation.

"Now get some rest," Mao said. "And you don't worry, I'll make sure she's plenty healthy to take things up later."

Ranma put her face in her palm as Mara just stared at the ceiling somewhat confused.

* * *

Eija, Kaname and Sousuke came to a stop as they left the hallway and found Ranma standing there with her arms crossed and waiting, by all appearances. Eija swallowed nervously and Kaname laughed likewise as Sousuke came to attention.

_How'd she get back here so fast?_ Kaname asked.

_I seriously don't know,_ Eija responded.

_Perhaps she's only been there a few seconds and felt us coming?_ Sousuke suggested hopefully.

"Sagara," Ranma said expectantly before reaching one hand out and giving a "come here" gesture.

"Excuse me," Sousuke said, turning toward Eija and Kaname. "But I think I..."

"You have to go," the girls said simultaneously.

"Also, privacy," Ranma said, glancing more toward Eija and Kaname than Sousuke for the moment.

Both the girls nodded then as Ranma led Sousuke down the hall.

"I think we still need to get our blouses exchanged," Kaname said idly.

"Yes, true," Eija said. "We should attend to that."

_At least she thinks its mostly my fault that we...uh, slept together,_ Kaname sent to Eija.

_No, I think she feels this is something we all have a responsibility for,_ Eija said.

_Uh, by the way, as the medically trained of us, should we get tested?_ Kaname asked.

_It's only been a little more than a day,_ Eija said. _I think it takes something between one and two weeks for conception to actually happen. For humans anyway. I haven't asked about Gods yet._

Kaname paused and looked toward Eija.

"You think?" she said. "You don't know."

"I believe Naiki is the only one who has received that particular lecture often enough to know it by heart," Eija noted.

"Well that makes sense," Kaname said, then she had an uncomfortable thought.

If it took two weeks to conceive that meant that Sousuke's...soldiers were still...

The blush on Eija's face let her know that the thought had passed on to her friend as well, though it was fainter. Probably because she already basically knew that.

"Let's get those uniforms and meet back up whereever Sousuke is when Okaasan is done speaking to him," Eija said quickly.

"Right," Kaname agreed.

* * *

Kaname snatched up the blouse she'd left in her borrowed room that morning. Or was it yesterday by now? She'd been going so long and doing so much it was hard to remember how long ago it was that she'd woken up this morning.

She was about to turn to leave when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. This was the first time she'd actually taken a good look at her own face since the events the resulted in her changing to be what she was.

A first glance and her under-eye marks were somewhat similar to Eija's, being almost drop like, but there were subtle differences. More like little candle flames than falling drops of something liquid. Her forehead mark was like a small portion of a starburst, one long ray and two shorter ones pointed downward, like a rocket exhaust or something.

That was supposed to say something about the character of a God or Demon, or maybe just personality since it didn't seem to be a way to tell the good from the bad. So what exactly did it say about her, she wondered.

Grimacing, briefly she moved to the door with the blouse and walked out of it.

Or would have if Deimosu hadn't been there getting ready to knock.

"Deimosu," she said, narrowing her eyes.

_Deimosu?_ Eija replied. _Are you all right with him alone?_

"Chidori," he responded. "I want to talk to you."

_I'm fine, but I have to go for a moment,_ Kaname said.

_Wait, are you..._ Eija's thoughts shrunk to a muted mumble as Kaname turned all her attention on Deimosu.

* * *

Eija took up the carefully folded blouse and headed for the door, aiming to get to where Kaname was before her and Deimosu's talk developed into an incident of some kind. Deimosu wouldn't intend to do anything, but Kaname had some power now and both had rather real tempers. And Kaname unintentionally going akira would just make Deimosu's opinion of her worse.

The Goddess had moved out into the hall and moving through the halls at a quick step.

"Excuse me," a voice said that stopped Eija in her tracks.

She turned around slowly to look toward the source of the words, and saw an older woman leaning painfully against the walls. She easily recognized who it was.

"I seem to have gotten lost," the woman said with a wince. "I understand that the Satomis are quartered somewhere in this direction. Would you happen to know where?"

Eija's nervousness moved away at that question and she tried to put in her mind the things that Kaname and Sousuke had reminded her of after her first interactions with this woman.

"I am right here, Grandmother," she said, straightening herself and frowning as firmly as she could manage at the moment.

That brought a curious reaction from the woman as she moved closer to the wall and tried to straighten herself as she leaned forward, wincing at each step.

"Are...are you all right?" Eija asked.

There didn't seem to be an immediate risk of death, or a sign of anything advancing too quickly, but it was clear that the woman was in pain.

"You're...you're, which one are you?" Nodoka asked, reaffirming Eija's firm and cautious attitude.

"I would assume that I am not the Satomi daughter who is one hundred seventy-five centimeters with green hair," Eija noted, narrowing her eyes.

Nodoka frowned at the response, though it was hard for Eija to tell whether or not it was from an effort of understanding what was said or in reaction to the implied insult.

"Eija...am I correct?" Nodoka asked finally.

"Did you need a doctor, Grandmother?" Eija asked, hard tone cracking to something gentler in spite of her intent. "Or would you rather receive aid from someone who really exists?"

* * *

Sousuke could feel a fine sweat working over his brow as Ranma led him to his quarters. That was deliberate, of course, he was quartered currently with the other Mithril people, Eija and her family were quartered near the Psyche freelancers and Kaname had been quartered with the civilians, but closer to the Demons she was working with.

Sousuke wondered if Ranma had had anything to do with that arrangement but dismissed that. It was likely just coincidence, and assigning everything to the Satomi parent was likely just a healthy level of paranoia.

The door closed behind him and he stood rigidly at attention as Ranma moved around in front of him.

"Before I relate what I've got from talking to Eija and Kaname," Ranma said. "What do you have to say about what happened?"

"I have no excuse, Ma'am," Sousuke said sharply. "Events progressed unexpectedly and I lost perspective on my actions."

"So you're saying, if you had to do it over, you wouldn't have gone through with it?" Ranma asked.

Sousuke started to open his mouth and stopped as he was aware of both Eija and Kaname's emotions pushing through their blocks in the back of his mind. It caused him to hesitate just a couple of seconds.

"Good answer," Ranma said, misunderstanding the reason for Sousuke's hesitance.

"But...I didn't say anything, Ma'am," he said, trying to split his attention between Kaname, Eija and Ranma.

"Sometimes there aren't any good answers," the exorcist said. "Especially when you get into a situation like this one."

There was a clear tone to her voice that said she would not be so understanding if there were a repeat performance in the near future.

"I understand Ma'am," Sousuke said, swallowing nervously.

"How are you handling the Kalinin thing?" Ranma asked a bit quieter. "I got the feeling that he was important to you."

"He was my...superior, Ma'am," Sousuke said tightly.

Ranma sighed and shook her head. That meant that he wasn't dealing with it at all just yet. Ranma herself only had the faintest idea of what Kalinin was to Sousuke, however, so she wasn't exactly in a place to help much.

"People...get lost," Ranma said finally. "That's all I can really tell you without knowing more about the circumstances. His and yours."

"It is under control, Ma'am," Sousuke assured Ranma.

The red-headed exorcist arched an eyebrow but went ahead.

"I'm guessing that that and other things had something to do with what happened," Ranma explained quietly. "But, this doesn't happen again until people are older, got it?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Sousuke said.

"You will be joining Kaname and Eija in training," the martial artist promised him finally.

* * *

"I'm getting really tired of you, Deimosu!" Kaname snapped not letting Deimosu get started talking. "Every time you're around, you're harping and me or Sousuke!"

Deimosu started to open his mouth and found Kaname stepping forward and leaning up into his face.

"You spend all your time looking for something to snap at us for," she said. "And you keep coming back to that stupid locker thing that happened months ago!"

Her hands curled into fists and she thumped Deimosu on one of his shoulders. He lightly felt it, though she put some strength into it.

"And don't give me crap about wanting to protect Eija, because you're ignoring her!" Kaname said.

What Deimosu had been planning to say went out the window as Kaname said that.

"How dare you!" he snapped. "I have always protected my sisters! I have never ignored when they're in trouble!"

"I got news for you, Deimosu," Kaname said. "They don't need that kind of protecting! Do you know what Eija really needs? She needs to people to push her to make decisions and stick with them."

"And you think she gets that by you dragging her into a triangle as some sort of window dressing," Deimosu asked.

"I really don't know who first suggested that," the blue-haired girl said, calming down and turning quieter and looking down. "Part of me thinks it's the way we're linked, but then I look at Tessa and Naiki and they don't share the same interests in people at all. So I don't know what it is. Then again, it might be because they don't share the same taste in personalities or looks or gender that this hasn't happened with them."

She frowned then and glared back at Deimosu.

"And if you're one to talk about treating her like window dressing," Kaname said. "She's not some character in your heroic fantasy, she's your sister! And not everything she does revolves around you, and she doesn't stop existing when you're not around! Hell, I'd trust Naiki's judgment over yours!"

"Naiki gets herself nearly killed out of sheer recklessness on a regular basis!" Deimosu protested.

"And?" Kaname asked pointedly.

Deimosu's mouth and eyes twitched as he stared down at Kaname.

"And how do you encourage her to make decisions?" the blonde Ainur asked.

"I ask her advice," Kaname said. "Constantly. I've been practically having her write my script for the last couple of months, actually. I ask her what she wants to do. Sousuke's the same way. Unless there's some sort of dangerous emergency, then they're both good."

"If you hurt her..." Deimosu said.

"If I betray one of them, the other won't forgive me," Kaname assured Deimosu. "And if any outsider comes after one of us, we'll retaliate."

"And what can you do to someone strong enough to do anything to them?" Deimosu asked.

"Do you know how many psychic viruses I've helped breakdown recently, Deimosu?" she asked. "Do you think I just forget how they work?"

Her eyes glittered warningly.

Deimosu crossed his arms with a frown and stared down at her where she refused to bulge and his eyes wandered to the shirt over her shoulder and how it was clearly too small for her.

"Is that Eija's shirt?" he asked.

Kaname flinched then and pulled the shirt behind her.

"Uhhh, we got some laundry mixed up," the girl said quickly and then shaking her head and returning to her glare. "So let's finish this. We're going to stop arguing or fighting around Eija right?"

"You're doing laundry wi..."

"Right?" Kaname insisted. "Because she doesn't like us fighting."

"Fine," Deimosu said. "But I'm still keeping an eye on you."

"That's just fine," Kaname said, throwing her head up and walking forcefully down the hallway.

* * *

Nodoka pushed off the wall and tried to stand up straight, but fell against the wall again. Eija's eyebrows darted up as her look softened for a moment as she stepped forward intending to help the older woman. Then she remembered how she'd been treated the last time she'd encountered this particular grandmother.

The older samurai woman squinted her eyes for a moment and then shook her head as she breathed heavily.

"Do...you al...ways wear those awful things in front of your eyes?" she asked.

Eija's hand reached up to her face and the sunglasses she habitually wore. At the same time the Goddess winced from the callous, petty remark.

"I...suppose it has to do with the fact that light somewhat hurts my eyes, Grandmother," Eija returned after some thought. "Now I think you need to be going to see a doc..."

"Is that an attempt at being witty?" Nodoka asked.

Eija winced again and slumped at the remark. Why was this woman bothering to talk to her at all if she was just going to give petty insults.

"As you wish, a direct question," Eija said, she tried to firm up her expression, but couldn't do it without recalling when she'd sealed Hecate.

Instead of a firm and confident glare, the memory of Persephone's death gave her a tremble of the lip and voice as she continued speaking.

"Why did the mother of the mother who saw me as a tool treat me with love," Eija asked, "while the mother of the mother who raised and protected me treats me as an abomination?"

Nodoka took a breath then and resisted the urge to answer right away as she reconsidered the question. Something about the emotion put into those words came through the pain that was still garbling her thought. This was something she didn't want to leave toward the trash in her mind just yet. Her breath came in sharp twists.

"Is...there an answer?" Eija asked.

"Did?" Nodoka repeated. "Did something happen to your other grandmother?"

Eija shoulders dropped some more and Nodoka was instantly aware that she had said something wrong, though it was hard to lay on to what exactly. Hadn't there been a question to answer?

Eija reached up a hand to wipe at her cheeks.

"I see," Eija said quietly, stepping forward. "I'll take you to the hospital now, Grandmother."

Nodoka winced and resisted the urge to sit down as the pain worsened again. Yesterday, or was it this morning, sometime recently, she'd been coherent enough to attempt to avenge her...daughter? She had a son didn't she? But everything was turning frustratingly into a mush now.

"If you could, young woman," Nodoka said, trying to force herself to speak with a normal tone. "Take me to the Satomi's instead. I need to make an apology to...someone..."

Eija blinked and stared at Nodoka with shivering shoulders and blinked. Had Nodoka simply decided to return to disbelieving Eija's raw existence? Or was she...was she really in that much pain?

"I...I think you need to see a doctor first," Eija said in a clearly worried tone.

"I've seen a doctor," Nodoka said. "It doesn't do anything. I believe some of the Gods have told me it is a curse..."

"A curse...then," Eija said. "I think I might know who to go to...umm...if you would follow me, please...Saotome-san..."

She gestured for Nodoka to follow and hesitantly held out a hand to offer as support, still more than half worried that this was some sort of cruel trick.

* * *

"Mara's sleeping, Eija, go find someone else," Mao said before glancing toward Nodoka suspiciously. "Are you okay with her?"

"You seem familiar, miss," Nodoka said to Mao.

"Uhhh, let's call that doctor," Mao said quickly.

_Ehh? Eija, what are you doing over by Mara's room?_ Kaname sent.

_Well, I'm trying to get help for my grandmother,_ Eija started to explain.

_Have you had contact with Persephone's spirit?_ Sousuke asked.

_No, Persephone crossed over,_ the Goddess said. _I was speaking of the other..._

And she had an impression of both Kaname and Sousuke rushing to get to her position.

_I am not in danger,_ she protested with a mental sigh.


	50. Still Moving Forward

The next morning found Ranma waking up alone, aside from the feel of her children in nearby rooms, and the sound of a polite knocking on the outside of the Atlantean quarters.

Polite but insistent.

Frowning, she stood up and walked toward the door after taking a moment to make sure that she was presentable. A check of the clock said it was still very early in the morning, though Atlantis' artificial day-night cycle was odd, and she would likely have been awake in another minute or two anyway.

When she opened the door, she found herself faced with a woman of familiar features to Ranma. She'd seen them in Eija's face and in Persephone's. A fuzzy memory of hers had shown something of the same features in Hecate.

This particular woman had dark crimson hair held back in a simple pony-tail as well as somewhat pale skin the like of Eija's. The woman also had the red eyes that both Ranma's daughter and her grandmother had had.

"You are Ranma Satomi?" the woman asked.

"That's me," she said.

"Then I believe I need to introduce myself, Sister," the woman said with a faint smile as she bowed in a European fashion. "I am Macaria, born of Persephone and Hades."

"Ah," Ranma said. "Do you want to come in?"

"I'm afraid not," Macaria said with the sigh of the responsible who wishes to be irresponsible. "I'm hear to make you and your children aware that the DisPater family will be meeting soon, before these forces will move on either Tokyo or Nifelheim."

"A meeting?" Ranma asked, crossing her arms thoughtfully. "What's the issue?"

"Mother is dead, father is missing," Macaria said. "We need to address these matters. And I am aware that Belldandy of the Norns has been granted control of Mother's last word, so we shall have to listen to that as well."

"A reading of the will then," Ranma noted. "Anything else?"

"Yes..." and here the Goddess appeared uncomfortable. "Perhaps you are aware, that my sister and niece had the...misfortune to fall under Zeus's power for a time."

Ranma's eyes widened fractionally, though her expression otherwise remained the same.

"I don't know that I can help out there much," Ranma said quietly. "But I'll see what I can do."

"That is all I can ask," Macaria said. "I am sorry to trouble you, Sister."

"Naw, it makes sense," the red-head assured her calmly.

* * *

Naiki looked around the room wondering why her mother had interrupted their morning training when there wasn't anything planned going on. Looking around it was pretty clearly just the three of them called out, though that was pretty much doomed to not being the case.

"So, good morning, kids," Ranma said, trying not to send nervous.

The three siblings exchanged looks and noted the failing poker face as well as the uncertain tone of voice. That meant a potentially, correction: certainly, embarrassing turn of events dealing with their mother's or their family's personal life. At least it meant no deadly information.

"And good morning, Kaname, Sousuke, Tessa and Yonjuu," Ranma noted as a concession, though none of them were in the room at the moment. She grimaced briefly. "...and Lusca."

Three sets of eyes blinked as Ranma sighed expressively and waved over Naiki's head. Naiki leaned her head forward into her palm as Eija and Deimosu, on either side of her, turned to look back and saw the bandaged up school girl Demoness coming out from behind one of the various standing plants that the Atlantis staff seemed to like putting out around the city.

"Hello, Miss Satomi!" Lusca called out happily.

"What is she doing here?"

"Two things," Ranma said. "Well, maybe three."

And that followed pattern too, something rather important would come first to presumably help distract from the embarrassing revelations that came next. "Maybe three" usually meant something that had the potential to be especially embarrassing.

"Oh dear," Eija said quietly.

"First, apparently, we've been asked to attend the reading of Persephone's will sometime in the next couple of days," he noted. "As well as discuss other things."

Deimosu wasn't sure what to think about that, but glancing over towards Eija showed that she'd tightened her fists slightly. His attempt at apology toward Kaname had already gone...poorly. Granted, that was because Kaname had torn into him as soon as he showed up at her door, but he had to admit to himself, if not Kaname, that it was possibly just the smallest bit deserved.

Coming off that encounter by commenting on how Persephone had birthed the woman that had...done so much that was hateful...was unlikely to garner much appreciation at the moment.

"I shall be ready," Eija said.

"That's good," Ranma said, nodding. "Yeah, so. There's that."

Lusca hummed and skipped forward to plop herself down next to Naiki, in between her and Deimosu. She crossed her legs modestly and placed her hands on her knees with a smile.

Naiki looked up, wondered briefly where the fourth chair had come from and looked down...yep, sure enough...there were tentacles growing out of the floor.

"What are you doing here?" Deimosu asked the girl, unable to resist.

Lusca leaned over toward Naiki, just shy of putting her head on Naiki's shoulder and smiled.

"I'm with Naiki!" she said.

"I didn't tell her anything," Naiki said as Deimosu looked at her. "I mean, I didn't even know Mom was going to call us up until it happened."

"Oh, Naiki doesn't have to tell me anything," Lusca said. "I know everything about her."

"You're doing the creepy stalker thing, Lusca," the green-haired girl said.

"But I thought you didn't mind the creepy stalker thing," Lusca said, blinking in a bit of confusion as she leaned back and looked over up into Naiki's face.

"'Stalker'?" Deimosu said, causing Naiki to flinch.

"Lusca, just...umm...I don't know...do something...surprising," Naiki said with a shrug.

"I did that, you were surprised I was here, right?" Lusca asked.

"Umm, Mom's getting irritated," Naiki noted, pointing.

Lusca froze and turned slowly to look over toward where Ranma was impatiently tapping her feet and scratching the back of her head. The expression looked more nervous than irritated to Lusca, but she tried to decide whether or not it was worth it to risk being decided as "not funny" by the human woman.

"Right!" Lusca said cheerfully as she made her decision, "Surprising! So romantic! SQUEEEEE!"

And then she vanished into a puff of smoke, the tentacle chair sinking back into the ground.

Naiki leaned her face into her palm and sighed.

"If she's bothering you..." Deimosu started to say.

"Bug Lusca and I'll make Kaname look tame," Naiki said without looking up.

What the hell was it with his sisters recently? Had they both gone insane? Well, in Naiki's case that wasn't all that surprising. But was their mother really putting up with that?

"Okay, now that Lusca's busy with a 'surprise'...the...other thing...s," Ranma said with a grimace, half wishing that Lusca didn't take her threat so seriously as she did.

She could have stalled a few more minutes.

Deimosu turned away from his sisters' rather unorthodox love lives for the moment to prepare for whatever it was their mother had to tell them.

"Umm, so Eija and Naiki have already heard this...but I'm sort of a shapechanger," the redhead noted.

Deimosu turned his head to the side and considered nervously.

"I thought the Neko-ken was just a mental thing," he noted.

"I don't change into a cat," Ranma responded with a twitching eyebrow.

"Then what do you change into?" Deimosu looking over toward his sisters, who studiously looked anywhere else.

"Umm, well..." Ranma grimaced. "Look..."

Deimosu turned to watch his mother grow a couple of feet and shift form into a tall, dark-haired Japanese man. And he was sure that he heard a crack somewhere in the back of his mind.

Eija and Naiki stared as well, having never actually seen the change themselves.

"Could I..."

"No, Naiki," Ranma said.

"But then I..."

"No," her mother repeated.

"But maybe I could learn..."

"No."

"But...variety!"

"How old are you?"

"So, when I'm 18 then it'll be fine?" Naiki asked.

"I have just learned so much more than I needed to, Naiki," Eija noted quietly.

"And then maybe page twelve of that manga that Private Jenkins guy had..." she muttered before stopping and looking around.

"And she says more," Deimosu commented.

* * *

Colonel O'Neil looked across the table as Tessa's face colored and her eyebrow twitched. Then he glanced toward some of the other people at the table.

"And what's the score for the green-haired girl now?" he asked casually.

* * *

"Ummm...I said that out loud, didn't I?" Naiki asked as she looked over toward Ranma.

Her mother's, or was that father right now, nervous expression had faded somewhat and was replaced by a twitching eyebrow and a deep, thoughtful frown.

"You, Lusca and I are going to talk," Ranma noted seriously.

"Uh...yes...uh..."

Naiki fumbled about for what to say and Ranma grimaced, shaking his head before shrinking back into her female, red-headed form.

"...Ma'am! Yes, Ma'am!" Naiki said.

"And the last thing...you really are dating Lieutenant Mao?" Deimosu asked.

"Err...yes," Ranma said. "And try not to give her any trouble over it, Deimosu."

"Why am I being singled out for that?" her son asked.

He suddenly felt a distinct amount of attention and glanced over toward wear Naiki and Eija were both giving him looks that expressed an intense amount of disbelief that he had to ask that. Looking toward his mother saw the same look on her face.

"Right," he said with a irritated expression. "I forgot that I'm the designated jerk."

* * *

"Can you tell us the cause of the nuclear blast that destroyed the refugee camps at Okinawa?" a reporter asked loudly, trying to be heard over the gathered journalists.

"Is it true that the government has been using a private military organization in these conflicts?" another question called out.

"Can you say what you plan to do about the so-called demons that have taken up control of various third world nations?"

"Ladies and gentlemen," President Hayes said. "Let's calm down and take questions one at a time. I'll start with the nuclear blast in Okinawa. That was an isolated incident of terrorism unrelated to the current situation. The perpetrator has been dealt with, his known subordinates are in custody though his motives still remain unclear. For more details that particular incident will likely be unclassified in short time. So just have patience."

"And the rumors of your use of a privately funded paramilitary group?" was the next question.

"Many governments and organizations make use of such groups regularly," Hayes said. "So you'd have to be more specific."

"We've heard reports of a group that calls itself Mithril," the reporter clarified.

"You mean like the fictional metal in the Lord of the Rings?" Hayes asked. "That's a catchy name, we'll have to look into it. I can say that the United States has not made use of a group of such name."

The UN, Japan, private organizations with various countries and other such parties, however, had.

"And I guess I might as well discuss the Demons that are scattered about taking over countries here and there," Hayes said. "I believe steps are already in the process to address that issue. They form one of three of our major problems right now. We have the group you already mentioned, we have the rebel Gods which now seem to be fighting amongst themselves for control of Japan, and we have the fact that we are apparently going to have recapture Nifelheim from remnants of the repulsed attacks."

He paused and continued.

"Since we are mostly clear of the criminals and rebels," Hayes noted. "We're going to be supporting the other nations now. We are already helping Japan."

"And what is your opinion of these...aliens claiming to be God?" a familiar voice asked.

"Ahhh, Vice President Kinsey, glad to hear from your voice," Hayes noted. "Though I don't think you're a member of the press."

There was a low twitter of laughter.

"You haven't answered the question," Kinsey noted.

"Robert," Hayes said. "We've already discussed this in private. Are you sure you want to bring this out."

"I think it needs to be brought out," Kinsey responded. "I think we need to discuss these beings that seem to be claiming to be our superiors and asking us to fight for their war."

"Robert," Hayes said. "These beings came to us for help, the Demons basically gave up sovereign rights and said they were unable to protect their own people without help because of the casualties they sustained in the first attack on their worlds. They are fighting on the front lines alongside or ahead of our soldiers and the leaders of this venture are ultimately human beings."

"They came to us for help," Kinsey responded. "You just said it yourself."

"Right," Hayes noted. "And the help they asked for is protection of their civilians while they help us protect ours. I don't think the people that came to New York screaming 'time to wipe you monkeys off of our planet' would have left us alone because we didn't help the other Demons. We are the primary target, they're just in the way."

"And there is still the other question," Robert noted. "The First Commandment reads 'I am the Lord, thy God, though shalt have no other Gods before me. And yet we have people now walking around unabashedly calling themselves 'God', pagan Gods at that, or, worse, 'Demon' who are supposed to be enemies to Our Lord, and yet we're supposed be working for these imposters?"

Hayes lifted a hand and then gestured off the stage as he started talking and an aide brought a folder up to his podium and several other aides started distributing them to the various reporters.

"Now this, I knew someone would ask," he said with a smile. "What you're getting is some statistics we've taken from the Immortal refugees in our borders and some of their leaders. And I'd like to remind you, God is a word from a language that didn't properly exist at the time Christ walked the Earth. It is a word that we use to avoid breaking that Second Commandment about using his name in vain. The meaning of the word itself is a powerful spirit embodying a force of nature."

He paused and let the folders be distributed for a moment.

* * *

"These criminals and rebels attacked when many of our ancestors were taking the time to reincarnate," a Japanese man said vehemently. "Amaterasu, Susano-o, Inari, and amongst the Westerners, Hel, Artemis, Vidar, Tyr, Samedi and many others. Are we to be frightened by these cowards who act when the greatest of the Immortals have chosen to become children and relive life?"

* * *

Hel limped forward quietly ahead of Natsume as they approached the small crowd of people gathering near a building at the edge of the devastation. As she saw faces, she saw a plethora of the physical expressions of a death seer.

Perhaps a third had red eyes of some sort. Others had pale skin compared to most of their ethnicity, or much darker skin. Many were slender with a somewhat underfed look.

She held back and frowned momentarily.

"Are you okay?" Natsume asked.

"There are...a lot of ghosts," Hel said quietly as she leaned on her crutch.

"Isn't she a little young for this sort of thing?" someone asked coming around behind Natsume and looking down at the little crippled girl. "This could get..."

He stopped as he took in the red-marks on the girl's face.

"A Demon-?" he asked.

* * *

"Actually, one of my good friends' family includes both Demons and Gods," Nabiki told the reporter. "And they regard her, a human as their head of clan. So I don't think I have any trouble at all with them as a whole."

"So you've known about these for some time the war started?" the reporter asked.

"Given the number that live on Earth from what I can tell," Nabiki said. "I'm guessing that a lot of people knew a long time before any of this."

"Then why not say anything?" the reporter asked.

"Because no one would believe," Nabiki said. "Because if someone did believe, maybe a friend or family member would be attacked as a monster or imposter. They weren't hurting anybody, so why raise a fuss. Most of them still aren't hurting anybody."

* * *

"And this is the image we have for Zeus, God of Lightning," the man on the TV said sarcastically. "Do not attempt to approach this person. Do not talk to him or get his attention. If you see him report the sighting immediately to the nearest law enforcement personnel immediately..."

* * *

Mara blinked awake as light streamed in past the traces of incense that still hung in her room's air. Stiffly, more from anticipation than any real pain, she twisted herself around on the bed and stood up.

The Demoness blinked in surprise at how refreshed she felt.

Looking over her arms and what she could see of herself, most of the bruising and blood blisters were gone. She didn't feel on the verge of falling apart.

That meant she was just about ready to go back into the grinder again.

Walking out into the front room of her quarters, she really hoped her pad in Tokyo survived. Any of them really. She missed the space.

"Oh good, you're awake," a yawning voice said, bringing Mara to a stop.

Melissa Mao was in her room, and suddenly she remembered her last conversation before going to sleep.

"How about you?" Mara asked. "Are you lucid?"

"What are you talking about?" Mao asked.

"When Ranma brought you here you were trying to push sharing he...him," Mara said emphasizing the word sharing. "And finding a lesbian so that she can satisfy that part of her."

Mao stared at Mara slack jawed for a moment.

"Was he...upset?" Mao asked, considering that that might have been a...touchy subject.

Mara walked over and leaned on the couch where Mao was sitting.

"He sounded more like he was worried he should have left you in medical," the Demoness said.

"Oh thank God," Mao said, shaking her head. "Well, you know what I mean."

"Ah, don't worry, I'm Protestant," she said. "I believe in the big guy. Anyway, you had a big hole put in your shoulder, so even with a God healing you, you're probably looking at another day of bedrest. I meanwhile have things to attend to."

She started to stand up and walk to the door.

"And what do you think about what I said," Mao asked before Mara could open her door.

The Demoness stopped, fought down a brief flush and turned around.

"Hardly uncommon among Immortals," she said. "Even with Gods, a life-time commitment is rare. For Demons it's mostly a civilian thing when it happens at all."

"You don't have any long-term commitments?" Mao asked suddenly. "Just a bunch of swingers?"

"Long-term, yes," the blonde said. "For five years, ten years, maybe an entire incarnation. But life-time. That's eternal for us, potentially. That kind of commitment is rare."

"So what you're saying is that you'd be willing to take a try," Mao responded with a smirk.

Mara grimaced and shook her head with a flush.

"I've got meetings to attend to," Mara muttered under her breath as she walked out the door.

Melissa smiled and stretched back on the sofa. The Demoness was easy to tease.

* * *

Moloch stared at the gathering of other Nifelheim residents in front of him, waiting on Mara. It was odd, Mara wasn't someone he'd pegged as being the one to take up Hild's mantle. She was something of a screw up by reputation. Though the fact that she had gotten to category one said that she had a better track record than reputation indicated.

Still, reputation counted for a lot, so why were they following her lead?

"Where is..." Vanth started to say.

And that's when Mara walked into the room, Yomiko Readman coming in behind her and taking notes as Mara read through a file and started talking.

"There's an overall campaign meeting this evening after the DisPater's have their little discussion," Mara said without prelude. "Everyone is aware of that?"

There were immediate confirmations of the statement.

"All right," Mara said. "Moloch, you're going to introduce Ays to Wraith and help her brief him on the situation there. He's going to be replacing you as command of the Shadows there."

He grimaced slightly at that. He'd gotten used to working with the human and her people.

"Wouldn't it be better to leave there and move Ays wherever you want me," he asked.

"Ays doesn't know the Abyss's lockdown procedure," Mara said. "When you're done in Tokyo, get back here so you can be the Shadow in charge for the invasion to Nifelheim."

She paused and looked up toward him.

"Captain Testarossa is the strategist there, General Hammond is the overall commander," Mara said. "So that's Socrates and Mithril, while you're helping them, we're good with them in charge, got it?"

Which meant he was going to be asked to look for anything that suggested less trustworthy people involving themselves.

"Naiki Satomi will be helping you," she noted.

Which meant that Captain Testarossa would hear everything he found out for the most part.

"Vanth, as soon as the DisPater family get done with their meeting," she said. "They're heading to Okinawa along with all the other death seers that Psyche called up for that. I'm sure there'll be a handful of ghosts that will be difficult to deal with. They might have some desire for revenge or to protect others or something."

Vanth nodded nervously having just been told to very politely and quietly recruit from the dead. Neither Asgard nor human death seers appreciated the concept of using ghosts for a seer's own ends.

"Alastor," she said, turning to the Mediterranean Demon. "How's public image going?"

"It depends on where and what groups," Alastor said. "Certain...losses we've sustained have engendered some sympathy. Unfortunately, there are some groups that are calling for us not to be trusted. Ironically enough..."

"...a lot of them are the religious organizations favored by those Demons that follow human worship," Mara finished. "I'll have to talk to you on a more detailed level about that coming up. On to assignments again. Ammitt, you're going to be working with Colonel O'Neil and dealing with the rebels that are still here on Earth."

She looked up and closed the folder in her hand.

"And I am heading back into the Nidhog network," she said. "Any questions as to who's responsible for what?"

"No, I think everything is clear," Moloch said.

And that was why Mara was leading them, because she was the only one that had an idea of what to do and wasn't hesitating to say anything.

"All right," the Demoness said. "Moloch, you're getting as many as three out of ten of the Shadows available, first choice. Alastor, make sure she has the Faustians she'll need to watch everything, at least fifteen good ones."

Alastor nodded in response.

"Also, Readman, what's the word?" Mara asked, turning to look back at the human.

"Director Satomi has already confirmed that Moloch is who to go for with reports," she said. "However, a lot of us aren't exactly...military in manner."

"That's fine," Moloch said, "I'm used to solo operators."

Mara nodded and went back to speaking.

"Vanth is the exception to Moloch's first choice, any death seer, with her," Mara said. "Ammitt has the next choice followed by Ays. As to Rakshasha..." she grimaced. "Bodyguard. Anybody with a rank, anybody with a command. They get their back watched, got it? Until we got our network back, that's what we can best do."

She glanced around, standing up straight.

"Reports still come to me," Mara said. "And I'll be in Nidhog, so you should be able to find me whereever, I'll be in Silmaril to make it easier and safer to get to me, the location will be provided once established. If you can't get to me for whatever reason, get it to Readman behind me. She'll get it to Satomi and you know damn well I'll hear about it then. And it's..." she looked down. "...eight hours to the campaign meeting. Get going."

As the Demons started disappearing to their various tasks, Mara glanced back at Readman, frowned and glanced back again.

"Readman," she said.

"Yes, Miss Geisthexe," the woman asked as she finished noting some things down.

"What do you think about your boss?" Mara asked.

"Director Satomi?" Yomiko asked rhetorically before thinking about it. "Quite an interesting person, without speaking of things regarded as private, Ranma seems to have a unique understanding and appreciation of self in terms of both flaws and strengths. An odd mix of confidence bordering on arrogance and self-mocking humility."

"Uh huh," Mara said, following that but not finding it terribly enlightening. "And..."

She grimaced as she considered that she was actually asking.

"...there's no...attraction?" Mara asked.

"Not that I've noticed," Yomiko said. "Director Satomi has always been...oddly familiar but respectful of me."

Mara nodded and shook her head. Well, she missed the point of the question entirely which probably meant that Mao's drugged ramblings were off base.

"Okay, you've got to report this to Ranma," the blonde said. "I've got to put together a couple thousand code-monkeys into something resembling a coherent group."

"Right, Miss Geisthexe," Yomiko said.

* * *

Kaname sat quietly in the room with what was going to be the people in charge of this run into Nidhog and wondered why she was here.

"What!" Skuld's shrill, surprised tone came as she walked into the room and saw someone else there. "Urd? Big sister? Wh...what are you doing here?"

"We're going to help the Demons recover their network," Belldandy explained.

"Think about it kiddo, that's our normal job anyway," Urd said.

"But...I was..." Skuld sighed and moved to sit down.

"Wow," Megumi said, looking around. "Gods, Demons, Ainur...all of us computer geeks and programming types. And these are just the big guns here."

"But why am I here?" Kaname asked.

"As I read the report," Major Carter said coming up behind her. "You were one of the first to just dive into the data, weren't you."

"She probably didn't know it came with risk of exploding blood vessels," McKay muttered.

"Actually, I did," Kaname noted.

The door opened and Mara looked in, already looking focused.

"Hey," Mara said. "Thanks for coming, this is about to get...touchy. We're not making little forays this time, but going in full force."

"Yeah," McKay said, "And might I note, Nidhog, is a mess, a confused bloody mess that has been pulled a thousand different ways."

Mara frowned and looked toward McKay.

"Let me actually finish my objective list before we start tearing apart plans that we haven't made yet," Mara said.

"I'm just saying..."

Mara pulled something out of her pocket and held out toward McKay. Kaname thought it was an orange.

"I have citrus and I know how to use it," she warned.

"Uh...just a note, I'm...really rather...allergic to..." McKay said nervously.

"So you'll let her talk then, right McKay?" Samantha Carter asked wearily.

"Umm right," McKay said. "Go ahead."

"All right then," Mara said. "Here's what we need to do: fix Nidhog and shut off the category one permissions to the various rebels up there."

She paused as she held up two fingers.

"Here's what our problem is," the Demoness said. "They're probably trying to fix it themselves. Which means they have people in the system. And since most of them are going to be really skilled at viruses, that means we're going to need to defend whoever we got fixing Nidhog. And we're also going to need to be attacking them and probably defending the place where Silmaril goes into Nidhog."

She paused and looked toward Kaname.

"The last thing we need is for either Naiki Satomi or Captain Testarossa to be taken out of the equation," she noted. "So...the problems and objectives listed. Let's get started on organization and drawing up plans."

"How long do we have before you want to act?" McKay asked. "Because I thought you wanted to go back in today."

"Yeah, when I was working with thirty Demons, Kaname and Megumi," Mara said.

"An operation of this side is going to take more coordination," Carter said. "Most of our programmers are used to working in concert, how about yours."

"Us as well," Belldandy said. "Coordinated defense and maintenance is common."

"Most Demonic Viral experts are lone guns," Mara said. "And I think Kaname falls into that regard as well."

"I'm a what?" Kaname asked.

"Given the potential consequences, nobody should go alone, whatever their skill," Carter said. "Groups of four, minimum, like a Socrates away team."

"All right," Mara said, nodding and listening.

"I'd suggest that Asgard is the best at maintaining and cleaning code," Belldandy noted. "However, we have minimal experience with Nidhog code. Base four, correct?"

"Right," Mara said. "Just like our brains default to."

"Base...that's why it looked so inefficient," Rodney noted.

Mara winced at the indirect implication of her thinking inefficiently.

"Rodney," Carter said.

"What, I'm just saying that it's a rather prone to jumping to conclusions and..." he paused as Mara started tossing the orange in her hand up and down.

"Base four means true, probably true, probably false, false," Carter suggested. "Correct?"

"That's normal," Mara said.

"We can handle it," Carter said.

"I've been handling it," Megumi noted.

"Shouldn't the first thing we do be to figure out exactly what we have in terms of people?" Kaname asked.

"Good point," Mara said rubbing her head. "Everybody has their list of what they're bringing? I've got the Psyche and Nifelheim lists."

"We have the Socrates Group lists," Major Carter said.

"And Asgard lists," Belldandy noted.

"What does Psyche have to do with this?" Kaname asked.

"Exorcists, purifiers and curse-makers," Mara said simply.

"Okay, let's get together and organize by skill sets then," Carter suggested.

Mara nodded and turned toward Skuld.

"Hey, keep track of things for us okay?" she asked. "This is very important, we need an accurate picture of who we can trust as defenders, attackers and repair staff."

"Right!" Skuld said nodding as her complaint was bitten down with the "very important" comment.

"Do you have a working network map of Nidhog?" McKay asked.

"I don't think anyone does at this point," Mara said. "Add recon to the list of things needing done and focus on the skill sets for now."

* * *

"Naiki, can I talk to you for a little bit please?" Ranma said, gesturing for the girl to follow her out of the room.

"Ummm..." Naiki said, looking toward her brother and sister. "I guess I..."

"...have to go," Eija said nodding.

"We'll meet back when we go talk to your other relatives, Eija," Ranma said. "Deimosu, how's Yonjuu?"

That wasn't telling at all.

_I think my mother is going to want to talk to us later,_ Deimosu warned Yonjuu.

_What would she have to talk to us about?_

_Twelve._

_Oh,_ Yonjuu noted in embarrassment. _But we already talked about that...oh, we talked, but not with her._

"Both of you get some rest, this thing isn't over by a long shot," Ranma said, drawing nods from each of them before walking out into the halls with Naiki and waiting a bit before saying anything on subject.

"I haven't done anything with Lusca," Naiki said quickly, as she saw her mother opening her mouth. "And I'm a bad liar, so you know it's true. I mean I'll bet it's fun like when I..."

"Please stop talking about it," Ranma said calmly but quickly. "I don't need to know that. And try to give Tessa a break when your fantasizing while we're at it? Try practicing now."

"Hmm practice what?" Naiki asked.

_Privacy, Naiki,_ Tessa's voice told her. _Tell your mother I'll stop listening on this end._

"Umm, Tessa says something about privacy and stopping listening on her end," Naiki said.

"Okay, good," Ranma said, waiting a moment. "So with that, on to a connected subject: What do you think about Lusca?"

"What?" Naiki asked.

"What do you really think about Lusca?" Ranma repeated.

"She can be a pain, but...I don't know, since Tokyo," Naiki looked around. "I'm just...worried about her. I mean she wasn't supposed to be at Kyushu in the first place, and I think I just missed her being around when I was fighting Nike instead of hanging around Eija to see if I'd show up."

Ranma thought back to when the girl had said the Behemoths weren't funny and nodded. As the words were leaving her mouth, the pishogue in her had suddenly burst to overflowing. Compared to the candle flame that she was most of the time, that had been a volcano building up. Probably hitting the top end of what the Immortals called category two.

And she'd come out as monster over a hundred feet tall that was a cross between Gojira and an octopus. She thought back to her first conversation with Lusca.

"Naiki," Ranma said, "she's never going to be easy to deal with."

"She'll get better...I mean when she becomes a kid, right?" Naiki asked hopefully. "She didn't do anything to herself that'll go past that, did she?"

"I haven't seen that process yet," Ranma said. "So I don't know. Besides you're sixteen, are you going to wait for her to grow up again?"

"Hmph, sixteen going on a million," the green-haired demoness said. "I'm going to have a lot of time, aren't I? Just got to keep her alive."

Ranma smiled briefly. Of the three of his children, Naiki was the most innocent and naive. If she thought about it, she would realize that there was a chance of her dying at any given time in one of these battles, and she'd seen good people die who didn't deserve it. She'd also been forced to kill more than her share.

But her first instinct was still to think like a sixteen year old kid who thought about fun, games and pretty people.

"Putting aside your stalker for the moment," Ranma said. "Mara's said she's going to putting you with Moloch when they invade Nifelheim. You know what you're doing, right?"

"Right, Tessa's eyes and ears," Naiki said. "I got it. How are they going to get any big guns over there? I mean...are they going to do the cruise missile thing through a gate?"

"I'm not the one to ask about those weapons," Ranma said. "You'll be hearing Tessa's plan later, I think. The important thing, how are you planning on acting?"

"You mean am I going to be acting like an idiot like with Balor?" she asked. "Umm...I don't think so. I hope not anyway."

Naiki reached up to scratch the back of her head and stretched out.

"So the other Demons ain't full up and they only got a few people like me left who trained to really fight," Naiki said. "But if I die then everybody trying to get in to Nidhog except Demons and some Gods will get cut off, right? Gotta be careful and watch Moloch's back."

She grimaced in frustration.

"And let everybody else do their thing," Naiki said shrugging. "But that doesn't mean there won't be a violent, tumultuous, overwhelming flow if something's stupid enough to come my way. I ain't going to lose, I'm your daughter after all."

* * *

Ranma had not quite accepted the fact that Persephone had basically established that she be considered a member of the Goddess's family. She wasn't sure whether Macaria truly accepted it either, or whether the Goddess was merely being polite when she'd referred to Ranma as "sister." However, as old fashioned as the offer was, the exorcist had to admit that it had been made in a legitimately compensatory manner.

And Eija had had an affection for Persephone for the couple of months that they'd actually known each other before the Goddess had died. Died at the hands of her own daughter's spiteful ghost.

As expected, Eija was present already outside the area that the DisPaters had requested for this purpose.

Ranma had to marvel again at how incredibly huge Atlantis was. From what she'd heard, Nifelheim was about the same size, smaller once the surrounding waters were taken into account, and Asgard wasn't much larger.

Eija turned to look toward her and waved politely.

_Mother is here,_ Eija noted to Kaname and Sousuke.

_Okay, should we be giving you some privacy?_ Kaname asked.

_I don't think it should be a problem as long as we're quiet,_ Eija noted.

_Which involves not talking and therefor not really listening in,_ Sousuke noted.

Eija nodded as her mother walked up to her.

"Are you ready for this, Eija?" Ranma asked, not commenting on the little nod she was sure meant Eija was speaking to Kaname, Sousuke or both.

"I believe so," Eija said. "I simply decided to wait for you before moving inside."

Ranma nodded at that and turned toward the door of the room in question as she saw Belldandy walking down the hallway toward them bearing a mana-construct that appeared to be some sort of document or book.

A divine kindle perhaps.

"Oh, hello, Ranma, Eija," she said with a quiet smile. "I hope I am not late. I was just meeting with Mara."

"Nah, I just got here myself," Ranma said by way of soothing Belldandy's worries. "Let's go in."

Belldandy nodded and gestured for Ranma and Eija to move ahead of her.

Inside the room were a handful of Gods and Goddesses. Macaria stepped up from where she was sitting by two other women whose expressions Ranma could read fairly well.

"I am glad you could make it," Macaria said to Ranma with a smile. "But I thought you had two other children."

"I thought this was about the DisPater family," Ranma said.

"Mother did make it clear that you and yours are all to be considered members of the family," Macaria said looking a bit discomforted. "Is there a way you can quickly get in contact with them?"

"Naiki is probably with Moloch and Captain Testarossa now," Ranma said with a frown. "Deimosu is meeting with Hermes and O'Neil."

"This is disturbing, Sister," Macaria noted. "We cannot put this off any longer, but two of your children are not here."

Eija looked toward the dark skinned woman and blinked, noting that she looked somewhat familiar.

_Indeed, she looks like you do in the mindscape,_ Sousuke said, responding to her visualization.

_Yeah, definitely,_ Kaname added. _All black with red eyes._

As the brief exchange occurred, several sets of eyes turned toward Eija who flushed nervously.

"Hello," she said. "I am sorry, were we being...loud."

"It is probably best to move forward," Belldandy said softly interrupting the attention on the young Goddess. "Eija and Ranma can act as representatives. I did check on the protocol for...this sort of thing, and such is allowed."

Macaria nodded but still looked a bit out of sorts as she turned toward the others.

"These are my other siblings and nieces and nephews," she said. "Eija met Thanatos during her brief visit to Asgard, these are his sons Morpheus and Hypnos. And this is my sister Melinoe and our neice Nyx."

"So where's mother's seal?" Nyx asked stepping forward and moving to face Eija.

"Pardon?" Eija asked.

"Where did you seal our mother?" the woman repeated.

Eija narrowed her eyes briefly.

"You ask about that here and now?" Eija asked.

"Let us put that aside right now," Belldandy said quickly as Nyx opened her mouth to speak.

"Yes," Macaria noted, putting an arm on the younger Goddess's shoulder. "This is not the time for such arguments."

"Please sit down," Thanatos said pleasantly.

Belldandy waited for everyone to be seated before she started again looking over the construct in her hand.

"If everyone is ready," she said. "I can break the seal on this and begin delivering Persephone's final instructions."

Eija and Nyx exchanged looks briefly as they both sat down and then turned to look forward. Belldandy looked about and then nodded before channeling a brief amount of mana into the rectangular item in her hand, almost immediately she let it float out into the air, drifting slowly down to reveal an illusion of Persephone standing there.

Several of the people in the room felt a catch in their breaths as the image appeared, and Ranma noted her daughter's hands clenching.

"My greetings to my family," Persephone's image said. "I assume that there is some surprise that I had such a measure as this prepared. Unfortunately, I fear this conflict will share more in common with the first Demon-God war than the second."

There was a brief pause in the message.

"To the first matter, Macaria, Goddess of Final Blessing, shall be the new Head of the House," the image noted. "Should this not be possible..." she paused painfully, clearly having not wanted to consider that, "...Thanatos shall be next in line, Melinoe following."

"How...how bad did she expect things to get?" Hypnos asked.

"You may wish to adapt your Domain should the chance occur," Persephone noted. "The next matter for concern is that of my husband, the founder of our house. Hades and why he has not appeared from his retirement in the face of current matters."

She paused again as if steeling herself.

"Hades is not retired, he is in stasis," Persephone stated succinctly.

"What?" Morpheus said aloud. "What does she mean by that?"

"Shhh," Macaria said, focusing.

"There was a virus situation some three hundred years back," Persephone noted. "Hades was one of the Gods infected and apparently it proved stubborn to remove from him specifically. Hades made the decision to go into stasis before it ended his life and the Doublet System took someone else with him."

The image wrung her hands.

"He did not want to seek help from the other Gods," Persephone explained. "I have my suspicions why, but that is immaterial now. If this is being seen, my seal is being undone. It shall soon be possible to reach his place of rest. The reasons for the promise of secrecy are now likely moot, as is the primary reason of the stasis. The physical link to his sanctuary is within our estate in Asgard, the large sphere of obsidian that decorates our great hall."

"Which was looted," Melinoe noted in a quietly thoughtful tone of voice.

"That means some rebel has access to Father," Thanatos said.

"I do not think I have to tell you what to do with this information," Persephone said. "Perhaps with help from both Demons and humans, the virus might be defeated now. I also suspect the creator of the virus is dead which might mean that the virus itself is no longer so strong. Though that is most likely an empty hope."

"If you wanted to hide where a virus came from, you wouldn't design it to be dependent and there for attached to you," Nyx noted quietly, looking away from the image of Persephone as she thought about where such advice had come from.

"There are two final matters of importance I must leave you with," Persephone said. "First, I am in the hopes that Ranma Satomi and her children are present for this. Ranma has been offered a position as a child of this house, she currently has declined the privileges this entails, but I would ask that you treat her and her children as children of this house regardless."

The various Gods turned to look at Ranma and nodded toward her.

"And last is Hecate," Persephone said. "I fear she might not have crossed over and I fear it will be difficult to convince her to do so. She cannot be allowed to hurt anyone else. If she cannot be convinced to move on, she must be sealed."

"Already done," Nyx said, looking toward Eija.

"Yes, it is," Eija agreed in a controlled tone of voice.

"Girls," Belldandy cautioned, motioning to pause the message.

"Calm down," Ranma told Eija quietly before continuing in a whisper. "She hasn't done anything to us and..." Ranma looked uncomfortable, glancing to where Macaria and Thanatos were similarly calming Nyx down.

"Shall we continue?" Belldandy asked.

"I think we are okay to go on," the newly ordained head of house DisPater said exchanging a look with Ranma to confirm it.

Belldandy nodded and started the message again, which moved into a series of personal messages before ending with a final message.

"I hope you do not see this message for many centuries," Persephone said. "In particular, I hope to have more time to get to know our youngest and perhaps any future children, but war has erupted we do not have assurances of survival as we did in the past. Please, do your best to survive and move past this unpleasantness. And hopefully the world will not end a third time in our recorded history."

Macaria stood up and looked toward the assembled members of her family before glancing toward Ranma.

"We are going to be heading to Okinawa to deal with the ghosts there," she noted. "Will Eija be coming?"

Ranma looked toward her briefly.

"I am helping guide the Demon and Ainur medics as to finding basic healing spells," she said. "But I will be in Okinawa by the end of the day."

Macaria nodded and glanced toward Nyx momentarily before looking forward again.

"And...I am afraid that we do need to know where you sealed Hecate," she said in a kind tone. "It is best that her prison be under our control...and, at sometime, we might make an attempt to purify and cross her over."

Eija grimaced briefly before releasing a breath and sighing.

"Do you have a vial or cup, or the like?" she asked. "Preferably something that is durable and can be closed tight."

"Allow me to make one," Morpheus said, gesturing and gathering mana together to bring forth a dream of a flask made real. "Shall this do?"

Eija nodded and pulled up her arm before pushing a finger nail into the skin and gashing a deep cut into the skin, out of which blood flowed at first as weakly as would be natural for such a shallow wound. Then, with a look of concentration, it flowed more free, but seemed to move back into Eija.

At last a dark thread of blood slipped out of her body, into the air and deposited into the flask, which Eija then closed as people looked at her.

"I told her that if she wanted to drown in blood, I could make sure that she did," Eija said quietly before passing the flask over toward Macaria.

"Go ahead to talk to the doctors, Eija," Ranma said calmly. "I have to hang back a bit."

Eija nodded and bowed toward Thanatos, Macaria and the other DisPater's in general before walking out of the room to head for her task.

Most of the others left as well, Macaria hanging back briefly until it was just herself, Ranma, Melinoe and Nyx.

"Shall I be all right to leave you here?" Macaria asked.

"We'll be fine alone," Melinoe said.

"Yeah," Ranma noted. "This will be best to stay private."

Macaria nodded and left the three in alone.

* * *

It was sometime later that Ranma was walking through the halls, feeling more than a little tired even so early in the day as it seemed to be. She blinked as she found Belldandy around the next corner, apparently just waiting for her.

"How did you know I was going to come this way?" Ranma asked.

"I didn't," Belldandy said. "But there are mirrors or the equivalent everywhere here."

She pointed to the highly reflective walls.

"All right, and what did you need to say?" Ranma asked.

"Persephone had a private message for you," Belldandy said, handing over another rectangular mana-document for Ranma to take.

Hesitantly Ranma reached up to take the square, note-pad like thing. As soon as she touched it, the thing flashed into a small burst of light before appearing as a smaller, more private image of Persephone looked up at her.

"Ranma, I have been suspecting something since our second meeting," the image said, "but have not wished to say anything in case I might be wrong. Most death seers would not have noticed since few spend the time to note how far away a death might be if it is not going to happen in the next few weeks, much less years."

She paused and waited for that to sink in.

"When first we met, I would have put your predicted life-span at about five centuries," Persephone said. "Unusual but not unheard of for a mortal. On our second meeting, it felt more like seven centuries. On our third, I spent some time watching you. You are not getting closer to death. You are getting progressively further from a natural death of old age."

"I have met others like this," Persephone said. "But only two. Once when Arthur hosted a prisoner exchange and one a woman by the name of Diao Chen who resides in Asgard. Arthur is dead or at least sealed, I do not know which, but perhaps Diao Chen might have some idea of what this means. I had hoped to find more information and answers before broaching the subject. Clearly if this is being delivered to you, that is no longer possible. I hope this helps."

The message ended with the image of the woman fading away.

"That is odd," Belldandy said with a frown.

"Not the oddest thing I've heard someone say about me," Ranma said. "Lusca once said she saw me at a tea party before her thirtieth birthday."

"That is odd," Belldandy agreed with a laugh.


	51. Policy Matters

"I'd like to renew my concerns that the United States has been colonizing other dimensions," one of the representatives of the two Chinese factions protested as the collected dignitaries and military personnel came in to sit down.

"It's not really another dimension," Jackson said. "Dimension is probably the wrong word anyway. The records we've uncovered imply that it is more of a bit of folded space-time that..."

"Daniel," General O'Neil said wearily. "I don't think that's the main problem he has."

"If we can hold off on such concerns until everyone is here please?" the secretary general asked.

The Chinese representative growled irritably as he took a seat at the table in the Atlantis facility. He recognized the uniforms of Mithril officers sitting across from him, having worked with Mithril in the past. He didn't recognize the particular officers, and passed over the lavender haired teen who was writing down some notes while talking with the other two obvious members of Mithril's tactical division.

Mithril also had Intelligence officers present, more than usual, including a Japanese woman in a red business suit making her own preparations for the meeting.

The full UN was not present of course, instead it was primarily military personnel and some civil representatives of the associated groups. People directly involved in the actions that were taking part around Earth.

And that included the so-called "Gods" and "Demons".

It took a little bit more time for the remainder of the involved people to arrive and for the group to come to order.

The last groups in, he noticed consisted mostly of the aliens that were currently attacking the planet. He'd already noted that several of the American and Japanese contingent, along with a handful of others, had green facial marks similar to those of the "Gods" and "Demons."

"To start with," the secretary general said standing up. "The matter of the United States' exploration of other realms has been discussed and handled and will be treated as per the handling of space exploration. This is not what we are here to discuss."

"And let's not talk about whether or not we should include the Gods and Demons or not," a South African general said. "This is a meeting to discuss military operations which you nitpicking diplomats are observing. Observing, not talking."

"Thank you," the secretary general said to the the man. "Now if we can get on with matters. Dr. Weir, as this is your facility, if you'd please?"

Elizabeth Weir stood up and walked toward the center of the room and the hologram that rose up there.

"First of all, excuse me for being one of the nitpicking diplomats," she said, to a handful of laughs. "But I'll get straight to matters. We have essentially four matters of concern."

The hologram indicated Earth and showed some of the major shards in the dimensional pockets around the planet.

"First, we have the continued occupation of Japan by rogue Gods formerly under Zeus," she said. "Second the Demons that have taken over places all across Africa, South America and parts of Asia. Third, the retaking of Nifelheim, and the fourth, the repair and control of Nidhog."

She paused on the last. Various portions of the hologram had lit up as she named them but the last location did not.

"Nidhog is not going to show up on any map," she noted. "It is not a physical location but rather more like a sort of internet. That was in your briefing, and it will be discussed later. For now, I'll turn the floor to General Natsuki of the JSDF who is in charge of the retaking of Japan."

She indicated toward the named man and stepped aside for him to take the floor, staying on simply to handle the hologram which moved in to focus on Japan.

"Since the cracking of Zeus's wall around the country," he started. "We've been able to get in and out of Japan with relative ease and have already been engaged in numerous actions to secure the safety of the civilian population as well as acquire intelligence."

He nodded toward Dr. Weir who brought up several videos culled from intelligence operations.

"The Gods are arguing amongst each other," he explained. "If you can call it arguing. It's opened several openings and there are already some places that have been cleared, though we've suffered some casualties."

A casualty list started scrolling next to the intelligence videos. Some noted that despite the logical overwhelming numbers of JSDF personnel, that Mithril and Demons appeared fairly often on the list, with the occasional God.

"The major cities and much of the country are still held by any of a number of developing factions," he said. "But we doubt that with the loss of their leadership that they will not present even near the resistance they did at Kyushu. Our main concern is in identifying human supporters and cults and making sure that the civilians are safe."

He smiled then and gestured toward Dr. Weir to move to another video that showed a trio of Mantles being investigated by various engineers.

"We've also made some significant acquisitions," he said with a smirk.

* * *

"Take a rest, Seina," Wraith ordered.

The girl looked down at her and then looked back out down the slopes of the hill that led up to their cavern hide-away. Wraith had to admit, Satomi was damn good at picking safehouses. The Gods still hadn't been able to find them.

Granted that was half because they were fighting each other as much as themselves.

Not the issue at the moment and she knew it as she climbed up to stand beside the young Ainur.

"If I pull this chi stuff right," she said. "I'm good for the rest of night on guard duty."

"You were part of today's action," Wraith noted. "Everybody involved in that is resting."

"I can see better than anybody else right now," she said. "Better I can stay on watch."

Wraith snorted.

"You're falling closer into what Director Satomi would call a 'mystic'," Wraith said. "You think you're are only weapon? Your not. And if you're a broken weapon I'll send you back and you can forget your little quest for redemption."

"What are you talking about, my plan failed," Seina muttered. "What do I have to redeem myself for."

Wraith leaned down and pointed out toward where fresh smoke was rising on the horizon.

"For thinking you wanted this," Wraith said in a harsh whisper. "You think you're the only one whose tried to accomplish something dark. Girl, I've killed more people with my hands than you've probably ever fought in any way."

Seina grimaced and looked out toward the smoke in question.

"I have three operations tomorrow," the North Korean woman said. "I want you on one of them. But if you keep acting like this, I'll send you back. I can't use a weapon that can't recharge its batteries."

"But..." she gestured to her eyes.

"We have cameras every bit as good as anything you can borrow from a Ni," Wraith said. "Satellite coverage. And if I thought I needed someone with supernatural power, I have three psychic sensitives with about ten more years experience than you and two of Geisthexe's shadows. All of whom, you'll note, rested when I told them to. The people I'm replacing you with haven't been up twenty-four hours already. So they are actually aware of what they're seeing."

She took a deep breath.

"Do you understand?" Wraith asked.

"Yes, ma'am," Seina said bitterly.

"Good," Wraith noted. "Now, rest."

* * *

"We've captured twelve of these enemy vehicles," he said. "A drop in the water, indeed, but Asgard has allowed us to keep these three for research purposes."

Captain Testarossa and Mara didn't betray their surprise at this, though Ranma frowned and glanced toward Hermes a moment. Though the most obvious of the surprise came from Belldandy at his side.

"Yes, well, Lady Amaterasu is free to do what she wants with her own house's arsenal," the Greek messenger God noted. "You can thank that she apparently keeps good records of her house's military assets even at her current age."

He certainly sounded irritated, even if he was trying to hide it.

"We're moving into Japan at Tokyo within the week," the General ended. "As before, we're trying to lure the Gods into duels so that we can drop heavy artillery on the enemy. Before, to minimize risk we were using entirely Immortals and psychics for the task of drawing them out. However, that limited the number of places we could push an attack at Kyushu."

He crossed his arm and looked about.

"But during the Kyushu invasion, during Zeus's viral attack," he noted. "We had several units that had to defend the Immortal with them. The JSDF and marines that were on site have tested and developed numerous tactics for handling the same task with enemies of the rogue Gods' power levels."

He didn't mention that the number of people that had died in that exchange had increased tremendously while the tactics were being figured out.

"I also have word that Director Satomi of Mithril's Psyche division has negotiated some increased reinforcements for us," he noted, getting a nod from Ranma.

He continued from there into other details before turning the floor over toward Colonel O'Neil.

"So, for the rest of the problem on Earth," O'Neil said. "That's going to be me. This is more of a matter of handling dozens upon dozens of anti-terrorist activities than one coherent battle, but I think I've got cooperation from most of the Generals in here, right? Despite being a measly colonel and all."

He paused and started indicating the different hot spots that had been identified.

"With any luck," he said. "We're going to take these guys out before they know we're there. Though we got a couple of other things in this action. And those couple of things are Zeus and, well, Zeus. Which is why we have a whole fekking lot of the guy's kids running around the planning area. Information we have says he has some sort of reality bending curse such that only one of his kids can kill him."

With that he glanced toward Hermes and arched an eyebrow, the God ignored him.

"Anyway," O'Neil said. "I'm less in command here, then acting as a go-fer for the lot of you Generals here with the countries in the area we're looking at it. Heya, Colonel O'Neil, go for this Demon here, now go for that Demon there...etc...etc."

He took a breath then and continued.

"That sort of makes us a reserve for the rest of you," O'Neil said. "If need someone highly trained to deposit on a target behind lines. Or if lightning-head pops up anywhere in your territories."

From him, the talk moved on toward Mara who stood up and walked to the center, nodding at Dr. Weir.

"Okay," she said. "For those that don't know, Nidhog is like the internet of Demons. In fact, there are three connections to it right here."

She pointed to herself, Moloch behind her and then Naiki next to him.

"Though admittedly," she said. "It's more appropriate to say that we can connect to Nidhog than that we are Nidhog."

A picture rose up showing a massive snake, miles in length and thousands of feet in diameter. The last fact proven by an individual shown to scale.

"This is Nidhog," she said. "It is a living, organic computer capable of operating on the same psychic wavelength as a Demon. It's where a great deal of our power comes from among other things."

"Nidhog is currently frozen, maybe crashed," she explained, "due to all the hacking and counter hacking involved the past months. Unfortunately, the last instructions it received were from our criminals. Worst case scenario, we'll have to destroy Nidhog and rebuild it later, but we're hoping to be able to cleanse it, recover control and return those of us that are supposed to have power to it."

"Might I ask what you normally do with that much power?" someone asked.

Mara looked up and smiled.

"Well, for one thing, that meteor shower you enjoyed last year was a lot bigger before we reached it," Mara said. "And I believe Belldandy and Hermes could note some commentary about Yellowstone. Stuff like that's normally routine for us. Currently however, given the number of us that are dying and no longer adding to the combined power we have...let's just hope that we don't have a natural doomsday to worry about coming up."

That quieted people down a bit.

"Anyway," she said. "All three of the psychic networks have a point of connection now. So we're making use of that to get more than just a handful of people hacking in through one of us that's letting someone link in."

She pointed to the diagram on the screen.

"This is how Nidhog used to be set-up," she said. "Right now it's pretty much all garbage. We've got units set up to map out the connections, we're putting a command segment in Silmaril near the bridge between Nidhog and the Ainur network and we're going to start cleaning from there. I'm also maintaining an overwatch in case Zeus or the rogue Demons try any sort of cataclysm crap again."

The hologram shifted about.

"The goal is to find the category assignments that the rogues have altered and clean them out," Mara said. "As soon as we do that, giving me and mine the proper authority and power comes next. But I think getting the criminals who have world-ending power dropped back to where they should be takes priority."

She grimaced.

"As to Nifelheim," she said, "I'm leaving my homeland in the hands of Captain Testarossa and General Hammond."

She gestured and the General glanced over toward the Mithril contingent.

"If you would Captain," he said. "I believe it is your right."

The lavender haired girl stood up then with a slight nod as she walked to the center of the room much to the surprise of several onlookers.

"I know," she said idly. "I look like a secretary. I hear this quite often, now. Nifelheim. The Demons there are more personally powerful than the Gods we were facing in Kyushu, but as I understand it, most do not have the sort of skill usually associated with that level of power."

She looked toward Elizabeth who controlled the hologram to show a map Nifelheim.

"Our first objective is to capture the Abyss here," Tessa said. "We have information that somewhere around one-hundred thousand civilian Demons have taken refuge there and the information is that the Abyss is dangerous even if designed to be non-lethal."

She cleared her throat.

"Our main issue is that our normal plan for this situation is going to be difficult to accomplish early on," Tessa said. "We'll be able to gate in troops and men at first, as well as some ASes, we have several units worth of chi-enhancing Sciroccos ready to go in the near future and we are building a new proto-type assault level AS that might be used, but aside from that, the heavy artillery and cruise missiles will take some time. To help in that regard, I've already asked for help in developing 'affinities' for the Ainur."

"What's the overall benefit of that?" a general asked.

"As I understand it, Demons and Gods have almost complete control over their Domain or Realm," she said. "For example, Naiki Satomi, behind me is the Demoness of Torrent. Typically, she has to borrow a power through a spell in order to move objects..."

She didn't mention Naiki's innate ability to cause minor, local earthquakes.

"...however, when faced with a large number of fast moving objects moving in one direction, she can take complete control all herself. She can stop it, slow it down, direct it, scatter it. Anything she wants. Her sister a Goddess has similar control over blood. Nike, Goddess of Victory, had to be tricked into no longer desiring victory on a conscious level in order to be beaten."

She took a deep breath recited a high speed series of numbers and breathed as a pencil flew to her heand.

"Now, I had to borrow that," she said. "Cast a spell if you will. However, Ainur spells are incomplete. To get one effect beyond basic powers, we have to basically cast multiple incomplete spells from different places in order to complete one effect."

She looked around the room.

"If we successfully develop 'affinities'," she said. "Each individual will have at least some level of telekinetic or telepathic ability within themselves without having to borrow it and the calculations required for various borrowed effects will be much simpler."

Tessa glanced back toward the hologram.

"It will let us hold on long enough to bring our artillery into Nifelheim before we're overwhelmed and forced back," Tessa said. "We plan to time our assault along with Geisthexe's action to cleanse Nidhog. In the best case scenario, our enemy will lose their power and make the playing field more even well before that anyway."

"And how quickly do you think you can develop these 'affinities?" Dr. Weir asked.

"I am working with some scientists from Asgard and Nifelheim," Tessa said, "And they've suggested that it might be possible to speed things up if we could research a human or Ainur that already essentially has an affinity."

"And you have such a person on hand?" General Hammond asked.

"Actually, yes," the Captain said, turning to look toward Ranma's direction. "However, I still need to ask her about involving herself."

Yomiko blinked and wondered what Captain Testarossa was looking at her boss for, but on looking down to Director Satomi, found Ranma looking at her.

Along with everybody else in the room.

"Oh, you mean me," Yomiko said hesitantly.

* * *

Yaku sat at the corner of a table in Atlantis's cafeteria and typed along playfully onto the holographic keyboard in front of her. A small crowd of off-duty techs, researchers and soldiers was gathered around her watching her playing her game.

"Okay, that's a rush of protoss templars," someone noticed. "But are those Night Elf hippogriff riders?"

"Crap, I just saw a Total War kensai over there," another commented. "Damn, I didn't even think geisha could be deployed to the battlefield in that game."

"Arcanoi?" a third noted. "That makes Rome: Total War now."

"And Age of Mythology," the first said. "Just saw mummies and minotaurs. But I have no idea what those other things that everybody's fighting are."

"So basically," the second said to the little girl. "You've hacked together at least five different RTS games into a mass free-for-all scenario?"

"Huh?" Yaku asked. "I just let everybody link to the same server. The map here is really cool and stuff. This is hard, hard level."

"She programmed a compatibility matrix so she could have reinforcements from the net for a single player level," a person noted. "And she's using a laptop-version of a supercomputer for this."

"I don't know whether this is disturbing or awesome," Captain Lorne said, shaking his head. "Oh, look out over there, kid, aren't those resources?"

"Mmhmm," Yaku said, swinging her feet under her. "I got it."

"How long have you been playing this level anyway?" Lorne asked.

"Ummm, last week, I found it on the network," she said. "And I went to it and sent it to my computer and sent it out to the internets and people started coming and then we really started cleaning it."

The major looked over toward the "percent complete" and watched it tick over from 0.5% to 0.6% complete.

"Someone had a lot of time on their hands when they made this," he noted shaking his head.

* * *

Eija looked out over the devastated Okinawan city and shivered at the ghosts she saw wandering about in and among the rubble. Hundreds. Thousands. Tens of thousands or more. Ghosts of Gods, Demons, humans and a few Ainur. Ghosts that had died in the blast, old ghosts that had wandered out of Avalon or old seals and been drawn to the site of massive death.

"Everyone, do not act alone," Macaria said. "If possible, pair with one of the mortal or Ainur death seers. Or Eija. As they have more training with the recently dead."

Eija closed her mouth and nodded quietly at the comment and glancing around to see some of the other groups of death seers that were in the area.

"Excuse me," she said. "I believe I shall go help out with her. Grandmother and I were training her recently in any case."

Macaria glanced in the direction Eija was pointing and saw a crippled girl with a crutch beside a human with a cybernetic prosthetic. Old habit and reflex had her flinch as she recognized the child-form of Hel there, but she forced it down.

Hel was no longer an enemy.

"All right," she said. "I shall leave you to that. And we shall start in our path."

Eija nodded and started to walk over toward where Hel and Natsume stood with another death-seer. The human woman didn't have the blood-eyes, but she had a certain pale, ethereal quality about her. All of them seemed to notice her coming and turned to face her as she did.

"Eija," Hel said in surprise and a little bit of relief.

"Hmm," Natsume said. "It's good to see you. We heard rumors you were hurt."

"I'm beginning to feel that is more a default condition than I like," Eija sighed before turning toward the human with them. "Hello, I am Eija Satomi, Goddess of Blood, category 2."

"Hel has mentioned you and your grandmother," the woman said. "I'm Melinda Gordon. It's a pleasure to meet you."

She held out a hand which Eija took respectfully.

"Melinda Gordon?" she repeated. "No, really? That's you?"

"Wow, I've been getting that reaction a bit," Melinda said nervously. "It's a bit different reaction than I'm used to before everything went public. I didn't realize even Goddess's had heard of me."

"I was born half-human," Eija said quickly. "Mother made sure that I had a grounding in my abilities. Your name is well known amongst death-se...I mean ghost whisperers."

"So I'm discovering," the woman said with some chagrin.

Hel was watching the exchange between one of her tutors and the human, eyes widening slightly as she took in that this human woman apparently deserved the respect the other death seers on hand had for her.

Any further discussion came to a close as the air about them started getting thick and heavy around them.

"Come on out," Melinda said. "We're just here to talk."

The three of them held their reactions calm as several images flickered into view around them on and off. Burned, blistered and blackened, several figures simply drifting in the air about them.

"I'm assuming that there are more of them," Natsume said cautiously, keeping in mind a handful of exorcism rituals that she knew.

It was a grotesque display that had both the elder death seers stepping around Hel as they spoke.

"Hello," Eija said in the cool, soothing tone of voice she'd been taught to use when speaking to possibly skittish spirits. "My name is Eija Satomi, we'd like to help you."

"Help us," one of the spirits said harshly. "We're dead, what is there to help?"

"I can't be dead...I can't be dead...I'm only one hundred years old," another was saying in a shell-shocked tone. Eija could just barely make out a fragment of a red mark on a rare, unburnt portion of flesh. "How can I be dead? I'm too young."

"You're lingering here is not doing you any good," Miss Gordon noted, though she was somewhat taken aback by the hundred years old comment. "There was a terrible thing just days ago and you were all caught in it. Can you tell me what you remember doing?"

"I was working," the angry voice said through crack, bleeding lips. "Just taking some lady's money when there was this flash and then I'm here, like this!"

"Listen, listen," the Demon's ghost said. "There was a little boy, I think he was one of the Gods, is he all right? I think he was lost. Is he all right? I need to find him."

Several other ghosts in the area started also speaking about things that they had been doing, or concerns that they had and needed to deal with. It rose like a cacophonous wave of psychic noise that had her reaching up to cover her ears momentarily.

"Please," she said insistently. "Quite down."

"We'll do what we can to help you," Melinda noted, "but we need to have everything come in an orderly manner."

"Would all of you shut up!" Hel snapped, tempted to use her Realm to shunt the lot of them into a prison.

Not that she actually had that much power right now, however.

"If you want to help me," the first ghost noted bitterly as things quieted down. "Just direct me at the guy that dropped the bomb so I can haunt him the rest of his life."

"He's dead," Eija noted. "He was actually dead before this bomb went off."

"Then find me his ghost so I can tear him apart!" the angry ghost shouted as the world about him seemed to grow darker and thicker, pushing down on the living people around him.

"Will that help you any?" Melinda asked.

"It'll make me feel better," the ghost snapped.

"No, it won't," Eija said. "It'll be hollow."

"At least he won't hurt anybody else," the ghost noted bitterly.

Eija exchanged a look with Hel and then remembered to glance toward Melinda.

"That would be a good motivation, if it was what you wanted," Melinda said.

"I do not know that his ghost would be here," Eija said. "I felt no sign of it when I arrived at his death-site."

"What about the little boy?" the other ghost asked, getting impatient. "Can't you help me find him?"

* * *

Yomiko looked around at the people in the room with her. Several boxes of blank paper lined one wall.

Tessa looked across at the individuals that were helping her primarily with this. Dr. Carolyn Lam and Dr. Beckett from the Socrates Group had come along with a nervous looking woman with bat wings who consistently turned to look toward the present Gods. That delegation consisted of Inari and Anansi. The Demons included a seventeen year old Lilith and...

...Lusca.

Everyone present stared at Lusca meanwhile as she hummed and played with the molecular design models that she'd found on the side of the room.

"I'm aware of Lusca's...credentials," Inari said, the fox currently sounded like a feminine man. "But in her current condition..."

"She is not here at Mara's request or mine," Lilith noted quietly.

"She came in talking about a 'surprise'," the succubus whispered. "And then went to one of the stations."

They watched as she pulled out a little octopus statue and powdered it to stone to reveal a trio of oval objects. One of them looked like a silken ball, another a small rubbery pearl and the last a long leathery object.

"Are those...eggs?" Tessa asked.

At which point, Lusca tore open the white, silken object and reached into to pull out a mass of what looked like incompletely developed and twitching spiders and casually shoveling them into her mouth, still humming pleasantly as some of the spiders tried to get away and dying a few inches past.

Everyone watching shivered and looked away from the humming Demoness as she started examining the other two parts of what was apparently her lunch and eating spiders like popcorn.

_Naiki, I would be very cautious if Lusca's surprise for you is something to eat,_ Tessa noted.

_Huh?_ Naiki asked.

"Human DNA is fairly well understood on our end," Anansi, Uncle Spider, said as his eyes kept drifting towards Lusca. "Both Demons and Gods have been dealing with mortals on a genetic level for thousands of years."

"Including successfully altering us to match your own race," Dr. Beckett noted with something like disapproval.

"Volunteers," Inari assured him, sounding a bit more masculine this time. "And this is not the issue. I believe you have already taken some samples from Miss Readman, and we have a selection of case studies."

"Miss Readman, do you mind if we take some blood?" Dr. Lam asked.

"Certainly that would be perfec..."

"Ooo, that one was wriggly! SQUEEE! So ticklish!" Lusca declared.

"...tly...fine...Dr Lam," Yomiko said slowly as she quivered in a bit of disgust and embarrassment.

Most of the others in the room shared her problem.

The succubus reacted a bit more violently by covering her mouth and darting out of the room, almost barreling over Jonas Quinn as he entered.

"Whoa, what's Etna's problem?" he asked.

"A disagreeable lunch," Anansi said. "Probably on top of other stress."

"Oh, right," Jonas said casually. "You're people sent Morrigan to eradicate hers a while back. I'd bet succubus kids are raised to think of you as the bogeyman."

Inari and Anansi both grimaced at the description as the man moved to sit down.

"You'll have to excuse Jonas," Dr Lam said as she prepped a syringe and Dr. Beckett was rolling up Miss Readman's sleeve and wiping her arm with an alcohol swath. "He has little to no sense of tact."

"This is fine," Lilith said. "It's not like we're any better."

"Yes, well, if we can get over the centuries of mutual warfare and genocide," Dr. Beckett commented, standing up to look around as Dr. Lam took the blood sample behind him. "We have some excellent facilities here and back on Atlantis, but I thought Psyche's Dr. Magnus was supposed to be taking a hand in this particular venture."

"We might as well get some initial studies out of the way before we move to her facilities," Tessa noted. "I'd originally suggested Asgard, but..."

"The Searching chamber is damaged," Inari said in a sweet soprano voice.

Everyone noticed that the fox God's essential face and body structure didn't seem to perceptibly change even as the voice fluctuated.

"Right, I'm sure the first thing they did was target facilities you consider to be basic needs for your species," Dr. Lam said under her breath.

"That said," Lilith noted. "Perhaps Miss Readman can give us a brief demonstration as we watch and analyze the way the energy is used in the body."

"All right, I can do that," Yomiko noted.

She looked around the room and suddenly a cloud of paper swirled in from about the room and started pasting to her, shifting in color and building in height until her appearance changed. The Socrates Group personnel stared a bit impressed as a life-sized replica of Teal'c stood before them.

"I hope this will do for a demonstration, Ma'am," the Teal'C-alike said in a very Yomiko voice. "Or perhaps there is something more I can do."

"A little bit more please," Jonas Quinn said with a smile as he drifted back toward an intercom button. "Maybe try keeping the Teal'c disguise up as you do it?"

"Certainly," the not-Teal'c's-voice-by-a-long-shot said.

She stood up, moved a couple of steps to the side and, in her very-Teal'c-alike form, sat down in a chair that appeared in a swirl of paper underneath her. Meanwhile another swirl of paper came out of the boxes of blank paper and coalesced into the form of Yomiko who reached out to grab a clipboard forming out of paper and started to scratch something into the surface with a paper pencil.

"That is fairly impressive," Lilith noted with a nod. "Do you have any conceptual control?"

"Quite," spoke the Teal'C disguise that was wrapped around the real Yomiko. "I am capable of reading incredibly quickly and experiencing the contents as if firsthand. Of late I have been reading quite a few works by such authors as Michael Crighton, HP Lovecraft, Ian Flemming and Tom Clancy."

As she finished the speech, Colonel O'Neil came into the room, followed by Daniel Jackson and the real Teal'c.

"This had better be very imp...or..tant..." O'Neil said as he laid eyes on the second Teal'c. "What is going on here."

"Oh, hello, Colonel O'Neil, sir," Yomiko said, still inside her Teal'c disguise, which stood up to regard the newcomers. "Your doctors and the researchers from Asgard and Nifelheim were requesting that I demonstrate my skills as a paper master."

"So you thought you might demonstrate a matter of disguise?" Teal'C asked, glancing from the duplicate of him to the speechless Yomiko standing nearby.

"Quite," Yomiko said. "This is a good likeness, I hope."

"Except for the voice," Daniel said.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed with an arched eyebrow.

"You are recording this," O'Neil asked, trying to hide a smile at the very effeminate and semi-British sounding Teal'c in the room. "For the research, right?"

"I'm done!" Lusca said, holding up a purple octopus plushy proudly. "Sort of...anyway...gotta go!"

She puffed into smoke and vanished as people turned to see.

A moment later, Etna wandered back in holding her stomach.

"I'm sorry Dr. Lam, I told you I'd be fine to..."

There was a puff of smoke and Lusca reappeared with half of the rubbery white egg she'd had.

"Oh, I couldn't finish all this one," she looked around and thrust it into Etna's face, not noticing the succubus's face paling. "You can eat it, It's fine! Because this one I couldn't use or finish, all right?"

And she puffed back out into smoke.

Etna stared at the white surface and oozing pale greenish fluid that had been in the former egg which was now collapsing messily in her hands.

And the succubus research assistant gagged and zipped back out of the room, dropping the half egg to the floor.

"There's something wrong with that girl," Jonas noted sagely.

* * *

The pristine mathematical nature of Silmaril surrounded Kaname everywhere she could look about on the mindscape. The data flowed about in shapes and rivers like the terrain of a vast, well planned city formed out of shifting numbers. Though occasionally that pattern was broken in places were someone had visualized a construct so firmly as one thing that it appeared as that thing.

This was especially true of the preparations in the physical room made by various exorcists and carried over through their minds into the collective terrain about them.

It looked more like the Matrix, with large patches of the illusion replaced by the flowing numbers underneath, than Tron. Though Kaname was a bit embarrassed to be comparing this real-world construct to anything out of the movies. Especially as she and the others walking around in it appeared so solidly real as they walked or floated about the area encompassing various tasks.

Megumi Morisato and Sarah Miller, involved as they had been in writing Silmaril's base coding, were taking the forefronts as they built in protocols and firewalls and security checks with help from those around them. Skuld was running about programing and altering the landscape as well, bulging the protections around these links.

_Start building the other side's defenses,_ Mara ordered, gesturing to a group of Gods supplemented by Kaname and a handful of Demons.

_Okay, here I go,_ Kaname said taking a breath and stepping past the building defensive measures.

It wasn't as if she hadn't been into Nidhog before, but the fact that she was essentially skimming past Tessa and Naiki's minds to get there still somewhat gave her the creeps sometimes. Worries about permanently linking to either of them always fluttered to the surface.

Nidhog, in comparison to Silmaril's crystalline city of mathematical elegance, was an overgrown garden of fractal growths that had overturned their normal boundaries to turn the whole view into something more like a garden.

Here and there, spotted amongst the Demon numbers which formed the calculations here, somebody had very strongly visualized something such that a recognizable island of seeming reality could be found in the sea of data.

Silmaril's islands of illusion-coated data had a high-tech, glittering feel to them that seemed to have been influenced by cultures from all over the globe. It was fluid and adaptable, shifting all the time even while it appeared solid and still.

Yggdrasil structures branched off much less. Instead of rivers of data branching off at each point of choice, it was seemingly based on a series of beautiful triangle-based trellises and mosaics that might have lacked some of Silmaril's fluidity but was inherently stable and difficult to change or undermine.

The defenses about Naiki and Tessa's minds and link seemed more or less a compromise between the three flavors. Ainur fluidity and adaptability, Divine stability and the organic power behind the Demonic calculations. It fit together well with only a few rough patches where others were coming in to correct matters.

Nidhog's patches of apparent physical reality were much less coherent.

There were patches of storm, left over fragments of Zeus's virus that escaped purge and were just waiting to find a mind to latch onto. There were places of overgrown jungle and there were anomalous structures dotting the perceivable terrain from the link. What wasn't blasted heath or overgrown jungles seemed to include western castles sat across from high-tech foundries and bamboo forests with near hidden tea-houses. Free data flowed about, anti-viral security measures gone out of hand and attacking practically everything they could. Fortunately, it didn't look like it was following any distinct path.

_Everyone remember,_ Mara said. _Captain Testarossa and Naiki might be a permanent link between Silmaril and Nidhog, but as soon any of you Gods or Ainur step into this place, anybody that catches you can get in through your mind. So stay here where we've got numbers until we can...gear up._

Kaname nodded at that and set about the task of helping the groups around her fortify what would be the standing defenses.

Mara faded out occasionally, connecting with what was going on in the physical world and trying put enough category ones on call in case some Demon or another decided to raise something spitefully world-ending.

_Director Satomi is requesting our presence,_ Sousuke noted to her and she nodded, glancing over to see if she could find Mara anywhere.

A burst of smoke behind her accompanied the Demoness's arrival within a few "feet" of Kaname, prompting her to turn about and see Mara looking at her.

_Kaname, Director Satomi is looking for you,_ Mara told her.

_Aren't I supposed to be helping out here?_ Kaname asked hopefully.

_Listen kid, I'd feel for you, I really would,_ Mara said. _Save that you knowingly screwed the...err...well, you know. Not to mention that training with a feng shui shih and exorcist capable of obliterating a hopped-up category one for a week should get you above talented-amateur-I-can-make-use-of into something reasonably nasty._

Mara's unstated thoughts ran towards the belief that Kaname was a prophet, which would mean that her skill increase should have been monumental in a short time. All the signs of how quickly the Ainur were adapting pointed to the existence of a prophet, and Kaname seemed the most likely candidate.

And Mara had noticed that her own people and the Gods seemed to be experiencing a trickle of the same benefit.

One prophet to advance them all.

Mara's mouth quirked into a smirk at the little bit of referential humor and nodded.

_Anyway, you got a call from New York too,_ Mara noted.

_That would probably be your younger brother, Kaname,_ Eija noted.

Kaname nodded and closed her eyes, or tried to, given the data stream nature of the mindscape in the computers. Since she had neither eyes nor eyelids, and senses just came in through all of her, closing the decorative eyes really did nothing. All she could really do was hide the data from her awareness slowly, like a cloud spreading over the stars.

But then she was in the Labyrinth, in one of the larger rooms and areas that had been grown out from the Labyrinth proper, which itself had mostly been taken over by Silmaril. The formerly dark, dry tunnels were now glittering passages of translucent crystal carrying with it veins of water to feed both the crystal and anybody walking about the computer to repair it.

Around the room, she saw hundreds of people meditating in the midst of circles lined with powdered crystal. Mara was visible in the room, they'd made sure to put Kaname in with most of the important people.

"Chihiro said the temple was intact when she was there," Keiichi commented.

"Oh, I hope it is," Belldandy noted. "I suppose we can repair it if not, but I hope it is fine."

"We'll be fine no matter what," the Ainur engineer said comfortingly.

"Yes, yes, and I should stay focused," Belldandy noted. "We're watching for attacks that need to be countered. And...oh, hello."

Belldandy looked up from the conversation with her husband and smiled at Kaname as the young Ainur stood up and stretched the kinks out of her system.

"So, you're getting trained by Eija-chan's mother?" Keiichi asked.

"Yeah," Kaname said. "That's going to be...interesting I think."

_Oh! Uh, Kaname...might you...uh...mention to Belldandy-san the...situation Okaasan asked me to see to?_ Eija asked with clear embarrassment. _If that's not too embarrassing..._

Kaname's face blushed briefly as she considered Eija's request.

"Is there something you or Eija need?" Belldandy asked, having felt the echoes of the conversation.

"Well, her mother asked her to look into...health and...reproductive issues for a uhh...Goddess," Kaname said, eyes darting about.

"Oh, oh yes," Belldandy said surprised. "We should have thought of that right off, but there was so much other things to concern us. And then the war...indeed. I shall arrange a time to speak to her as soon as I can."

"Probably a good idea to include me there as well," Keiichi said with a flush. "Just in case something..."

Belldandy started to flush then too.

"Oh, indeed, uhh, hmm," Belldandy said in a flustered tone. "Well, we'll arrange that."

Kaname, at least relieved she wasn't the only embarrassed one nodded her head and headed for where the gate to Atlantis sat. Better to trust the stable gate than try to recalculate for the fact that Atlantis and the Labyrinth were both moving.

* * *

The instincts from when Kaname was just a Whispered still worked in the unconscious, even though the thoughts and calculations no longer rammed into her conscious mind and give her either headaches or near nervous breakdowns.

For which she was very thankful given her few brief encounters with such an experience during the short time between her powers first waking up completely and when she'd become Ainur. Especially now as her mind worked through the calculations and analysis for just how a video-chat could be sent from Earth to Atlantis across dimensional boundaries without much interference.

"Hey," she said to the image on the screen in front of her, soundproofed doors behind her. "How are you doing."

Her younger brother looked at her for a moment before deciding to answer.

"You have stuff on your face," he said.

"I know," Kaname said, reaching up to her forehead. "It's kind of like a tattoo that grew on me."

"Are you like _them_, now?" her brother asked.

"Like..." she paused, "who?"

"Like the people that blew up New York?" her brother asked.

Kaname grimaced and bit her lip as she considered how to respond to that.

"Can I do the same things?" she asked. "A lot of it yeah. But no, none of us here are like them. Nobody here wants to hurt people if they don't have to."

Her brother nodded in thought.

"You heard about Dad?" he asked.

Kaname was silent for a long space of time.

"Yeah..." Kaname whispered just loud enough to be heard. "I'm still freaking out about it sometimes. Are...are you okay?"

"I broke my arm, and the doctors say I'll be fine," her brother said.

"That's not what I..." Kaname took a deep breath. "Are you feeling okay, having..." she looked over her shoulder. "Nightmares?"

"I had a couple," he said nervously. "The people here are really nice."

"Where are you, anyway?" Kaname said, taking in the background. "That looks a little nice to be an orphanage or refugee camp or something."

"It's a big house, like a mansion, the...uhh...Rossa Mansion? I can't get it right," came the answer. "There are a bunch of people here from New York. Some of them are kids like you."

He pointed to her forehead again.

"Well, have you talked to them?" Kaname asked. "Friends can help with...being sad."

"Why should I talk to them when they blew up places?" he asked harshly.

"They aren't the bad people," Kaname said. "They're probably feeling just as sad, because they've lost parents and siblings and children and been kicked out of their home by bad people."

She pointed at her head.

"This isn't how you tell if someone is good or bad," she said. "You gotta see what they do for that."

"But..."

"I'm your sister, am I bad?" she asked.

"...sometimes," her brother said. "And I haven't talked to you in a while."

"Would I try to hurt or kill a bunch of people?" Kaname asked, mentally adding the qualifier of people that weren't trying to hurt her or her friends.

"No..."

"Everybody is hurting," Kaname said. "I don't want to see anybody hurt anymore and I'm trying to help with that. When I'm done, I'll come get you and let you meet my friends. Okay? And then you'll live with me, okay? Does that sound good?"

"Yeah, it does," her brother said.

"Do you...do you know when they're...saying goodbye to Dad?" Kaname asked.

"I don't know," the boy said. "They haven't told me or anything. Could you find out?"

"I'll try," Kaname said. "You try to make some friends to help you, okay? You can try to call me...but..."

"But you might be fighting the bad guys," her brother said. "I saw the soldiers when the call was answered."

"Right, I might be fighting bad guys," Kaname said. "See, your sister is training to be a superhero, so she can make everything fine. Just you wait!"

She pumped her fist encouragingly and smiled when it got a laugh out of her brother.

"So what's your superhero name then? Princess Harisen?" her brother asked, giggling. "Captain Tsundere?"

Feeling happy despite the suddenly put out expression on her face as she crossed her arms and huffed, Kaname responded to the suggestions.

"Not all superheroes have a silly codename," she said. "Though...I think I actually do have a code name around here...haven't been told what it is though."

"Seriously?" her brother asked.

"Yeah, seriously," Kaname said with a smile before checking her watch. "So...I'll take to you again, soon, all right. And hopefully all this will already be over."

"Okay, Kaname," her brother said. "I'll...I'll see you."

* * *

Ranma was waiting when Kaname came into the room she had been sent to, and she saw Sousuke already there, sitting down calmly.

"How's your brother?" Ranma asked in concern.

"He's going to be fine, I think," Kaname said. _What are we going to be training in?_

_She has not yet stated that,_ Sousuke responded. _I have not been able to contact Eija yet, as she is on Earth at the moment._

"I'm guessing," Ranma said as Kaname sat down. "That your first question is 'what are we training in?'"

She looked over at Sousuke.

"As I've said, your battle skills and judgment are exceptional," Ranma noted. "Your chi manipulation is getting better, but still very raw and I haven't seen you do much outside of that robot of yours yet."

She looked over toward Kaname.

"You are a rank amateur," the red-head noted. "You have talent and bullheadedness, but you're going to get in over your head eventually. Now, if this weren't war going on around right now, I'd be getting somebody to drill Soldier Boy on how civilians actually act and why. Granted, they're frustrating still, but at least you should understand where they're coming from."

"Hey, what's so frustrating about us civilians?" Kaname asked.

"Kaname," Ranma said. "As I recall, you've were actively involved in at least three major conflicts and numerous skirmishes. You've helped organize the psychic diver group with Mara and Belldandy. You've helped add some design features to the Whisper of Souls, the Silmarillion and put in some ideas for Sousuke's next AS. You've been neck deep in this war since a bit before it started. You're civilian only in the most technical definition of the word."

"Well, when you put it like that," Kaname muttered.

"Which means you have no excuse to be as untrained as you are," the exorcist said. "But physical stuff isn't going to help you as immediately. And Sousuke came to me with the physical side of things."

"Then what are we going to be training in?" Sousuke asked.

The door opened and Kyoko came in limping with her cane and holding a transparent bag full of printed photos, most likely from her camera.

"All right, Miss Satomi," Kyoko said. "I found all the photos I could in my files. Some of these should be a little bit embarrassing. Why do you need embarrassing photos?"

Ranma smiled and turned toward Kaname and Sousuke without answering the brown-haired girl immediately.

"Whether you're going to be fighting physically or psychically, you're going to have to have a firm control of your emotions," she said.

"I am already aware of this," Sousuke said.

"I'm not talking about burying your emotions, Sagara," Ranma said. "I'm talking about experiencing them...calmly. A calm intensity of emotion that is completely stable and in your control."

The smile on the woman's face broadened.

"A Soul of Ice, even," she said.

* * *

Creating a shard or other sealed space did not involve actually crossing potential timelines into other dimensions, despite the tendency to refer to Asgard, Nifelheim and the other such places other dimensions. It was more like folding the existing space time.

So travel between one and the next, even through such things as a teleportation or gate, was less like moving a straight distance and more like playing pool with moving sideboard, a randomly uneven table and lopsided balls. Or else trying to perform origami with drywall while floating in the ocean.

Moving a single person or even small groups to large vehicles was reasonably simple. There were numerous nicks and corners that could be passed through between dimensional boundaries. However, there was a reason that it required either highly complex Gate spells and circles or else the extra processing power of a few hundred thousand minds in order to accomplish even something that simple.

Peorth and the other Gods responsible for trying to move Yggdrasil so that if folded back into place with Asgard were finding that the task was much more difficult than they had imagined. It was even hard to say what the relative distance they'd come was. They could have been half way, or they could be decades away from completing the task. Or Asgard could appear without warning and they'd have less of a clean merger and more of a collision.

Peorth shook her head as she recalled that Kami-Sama had moved the tree away in less than half an hour.

She turned about as Athena and Hermes came into the door and smiled at them before gesturing for them to sit down as she leaned back on her own desk. They were in her old office, a level below Kami-Sama's own office.

"Well?" she asked.

"We were separate too long," Athena said. "Lacking instructions, most of the Gods on Earth followed Belldandy's lead and took their cues from the humans and Ainur. Perhaps no one's given up Asgardian sovereignty the way Mara did, but the effect will likely be the same."

Peorth nodded and wiped a trace of sweat from her forehead.

"Are you advising that we follow the Demons' lead?" she asked.

"No, I don't think that will be necessary," the Goddess of Wisdom said. "However, if we push the issue now, we might find that many of our people choose to remain on Earth."

"It is probably best to refrain from forcing a choice in the matter," Hermes agreed.

"When are they liberating Japan?" Peorth asked

"Fairly soon," Athena said. "We'll be suffering more casualties when that happens."

Peorth nodded and sighed.

"If at all possible, when you catch a rogue?" she said. "Leave them alive, but take everything else."

Hermes exchanged a look with Athena.

"You mean, obliterate their mind so some new person can grow out of the blank slate," the messenger said.

"We can't force them to reincarnate," Peorth said. "If we're going to have to seal or kill them anyway, might as well do it in a way that leaves a person who can be salvaged."

"There will be consequences," Athena warned. "This is something our civilians are much better able to comprehend than a physical death, and they will not be happy with the decision."

"I understand this," Peorth agreed. "But it is either that, or simply kill them."

"And any information that they might have?" Athena asked.

"I doubt any of the remaining criminals and rebels have much information on the way things stand," Hermes said. "They likely only have rumors."

"Make a reasonable attempt for any information if you have them controlled and contained," Peorth said. "Offer them reincarnation, and if they refuse. Take their minds away, they can find a new identity."


End file.
